Echoes
by THEPHANTOM50
Summary: The IMC think they have found the key to winning in the frontier and put a plan into action but the Militia have other ideas and take some specal cargo from them and that launches a set of old events that reemerge to cause trouble for both sides who will come out on top this time. The IMC? The Militia? Or maybe their game changer just wants to chose for himself.
1. Chapter 1 The Beginning

AN: I have rewritten this chapter and the next fixing some problems and I know they are a little bland but I'm trying to make it better as it goes so please bear with me, All comments and reviews welcome and let me know if I messed something up so I can fix it.

* * *

Echoes Chapter 1: Weird beginnings

It was a Thursday afternoon and everybody knew it as the com room was off limits to all wile the heads of the separate branches of the Militia did there biweekly unit update. "A small group of the remnant fleet has broken off of there usual patrol route and stationed them selves above Demeter. They've taken up a defensive orbit to which I can only assume there waiting for the reconstruction group to arrive, but that's all I got for you today Sarah." Said an older looking man with a salt and pepper hair on the right monitor. "Thank you Barker, and I have the casualty list from Typhon for both of you." Sarah replied from the left monitor. Barker responded with a short "Thanks." Then Sarah addressed the com room "Commander Gates what do you have this time?" "Well as you know we have intercepted serval IMC data packs from the core worlds in the past week and had a hell of a time decrypting them, but we just got another one coming in saying that they have a decryption key coming with a package. What the package is we don't know but the key could help solve both our problems, I was planning to take this shipment and spend some time figuring out what the IMC were doing with it." Gates finished with a slight sigh. "How the hell is the IMC getting a shipment from the core to the frontier without the fueling stations at Demeter?" Baker asked with a little frustration in his voice. "From what we can tell they've built a one off, a ship that's been refitted with more fuel tanks but just room enough for the cargo and a small crew of specters." Was Gates reply. "So it cant be used to bring any more help to the IMC out here?" Sarah asked. "No not from what we can tell, but if this cargo is importuned enough to ship all the way out here it might be worth getting on board to see if we could use it our selves or if we need to destroy it." As Gates finished the two of them looked thoughtful. Finally Sarah said "Do you think you'll need any help or can the 64 handle it?" Gates responded almost instantly "We should be fine the IMC doesn't know that we know and there wont be any escort ships as they couldn't make the journey, plus intel says only fifteen to twenty specters on board so it should be simple enough." The video call want silent for a second or two and then they both agreed.

* * *

48 Hours later

It was going better than expected for once intel had over estimated the number of enemies on board only ten. The first five went down attempting to prevent the 64 from boarding, two more in the halls on the way to the bridge and the last three in the bridge it self. Gates had ordered Bear and the four rifleman under his command to the cargo bay to secure the package the IMC were now no longer getting, and so that left her and the four rifleman with her to take the bridge. As one of the remaining specters peaked from the corner it was hiding behind only to receive a face full of lead from Gates and the rifleman. "They don't seam that smart do they?" Said one of the rifleman. "No the not, probably they were reprogramed to sever as the crew and had only minimal of there original programing left." Was Gates reply as she put a fresh magazine in her R-201. With the rifle fully loaded she retrained her aim at the bridge where the two remaining specters were. Suddenly the two remaining specters charged them head on with no cover and better yet not even running just a fast walk weapons raised. Ya definitely reprogramed Gates thought to herself as she opened fire on the nearest one, both of the them hit the floor before making it three feet from there original positions. She signaled them forward into the bridge, as they went in and walked around every corner checking the room resulting in a couple of cries of "CLEAR" coming one rifleman or another. Once the room was clear Gates walked over the main computer to begin looking for the decryption key, the computer security was a joke a login with a password of password and no firewalls no back trace no nothing. "Bear this is Gates I've found the key what's the cargo?" "We don't know its three crates one large enough to hold a titan and the next one is six maybe seven feet tall, the last one kind of looks like a personal storage locker. But we cant get them open they require a passkey, can you look in the system for it?" "Yes one sec." She returned to the computer to open it again and after a couple of seconds found another code she opened the comlink again saying "Bear I've got another code I'm transmitting both try them on the locks and on the data I'm on my way down." "See you when you get down here." Was his reply. Ordering the rifleman to stay in the bridge and radio the frigate to confirm successful boarding and control of the ship she began to work her way back to the cargo hold. As she approached the hold she could her yelling and a sudden bang from a flash bang going off, quickening her pace she rounded the corner to see three of the four rifleman unconscious and the fourth in the corner of the room trying to figure what was up and what was down and in the middle of this was Bear on the floor trying desperately not to knocked out by the man on top of him. Which sat on top of him in a text book example of pining someone down, in a back under armor vary similar to a pilots under armor punching Bear over and over with his unprotected hands over and over against helmet and armor. "What the hell is going on here?!" She said raising her rifle at the man in the black suit, he looked up and upon seeing the readied weapon pointed at him he slowly got off of Bear and raised his hands over his head. Bear stood up slowly as well though it wasn't out a caution he walked over to her as the rifleman began to pick themselves up. "Are you ok Bear?" Gates asked as he walked over "Ya I'll be fine." was all he said. "You there who are you?" She said looking at the man not lowering her weapon "Cambel Alistar, and who might you be?" His return question kind of surprised the two of them as not many people on the frontier had the courage to be so openly curious especially when some one was pointing a loaded gun at them. "My name is Gates this is Bear, What were you doing ruffing up my men?" "Well I woke up to find five heavily armed men all staring at me with looks of uncertainty on all there faces and I've seen enough combat to take a guess at were it was going so I tried to defend myself." Alistar said calmly. "Well I can see your point." She said. By now the rifleman had recovered there different weapons and trained them on him, Gates opened the com again and told the other four rifleman in the bridge to come down. Once they arrived Bear bound Alistar at the wrists and Gates and him began walking to the bridge. "Alright what happened?" Gates said once they were out of earshot "Well when you sent the codes they didn't work on the big crate or the small one so we tried the middle crate next and that one worked, inside was this weird tube thing with him in it. Once the crate was fully open a consul next to the tube activated with two inputs on a yes and a no, one of the rifleman walked up and hit yes then the tube began to hiss. After a few seconds the front opened up and there he was just coming to and well the rest is history as they say." Bear finished as they walked into the bridge, Gates sat down in the captions chair and put in a course to Harmony. "Bear decrypt those data packs wile we head home." "Yes ma'am" was all he said as he set to work. She thought the key to finding out who this Alistar Cambel was is probably in there.


	2. Chapter 2 Unexpected Answers

Chapter 2: Unexpected Answers

The flight to Harmony was quite for the for the first five minuets or so when until Bear made it into the data and started with "Wow" and "No way" with several "Unbelievable". After a few minuets of this Gates finally said "What is so dam unbelievable?" With an exasperated tone. "Well we assumed that the IMC were sending a new weapon out here something they developed, but that's wrong they found it. Its some old world military secret they found buried in some bunker on Earth of all placeless." Bear replied with surprise. "What are you saying?" Gates said surprised herself. "The IMC dug him up is the short story." Bear said as he jabbed his thumb in the direction of the cargo hold. "What else dose that say?" Gates asked as she moved over to look at the screen herself. "Well from what I can get just looking at the first couple of pages it was some old world government setting up some new weapons project but it never went anywhere, some thing called project Olympus."

* * *

The rifleman seamed a little jumpy, he couldn't blame them he had just incapacitated four of them in just as many seconds. Now the eight rifleman all stood at a good distance away from him rifles pointed, that was fine with him he didn't have any plans to escape he wanted to learn what had happened wile he was in stasis. As he was thinking that woman walked back in, he remembered that her name was Gates. She stopped in front of him and took a breath then said "Your name is Alistar Cambel correct?" "Yes" was all he said "Is this project Olympus data we've found true?" "That depends on what you have." She held a data pad up so he could see it. "Well?" "That's all accurate, now if I may ask a question?" She was stunned for a second and then said "Just one" The rifleman around her looked confused at the back and fourth that just happened. "Where am I?" was all he asked, Gates took a moment to think then explained the hole thing the frontier, the war between the IMC and the Militia, where they were now and where they were going. After a moment he spoke up again "I wont cause any trouble would you be so kind and unbind me and I can explain a few things my self." Gates considered what he said for a second then ordered the rifleman to lower there weapons and stepped forward to untie him, after he was untied she looked at him and said "Follow me to the bridge, and if you try anything." She adjusted her grip on her R-201 and he nodded his understanding and he did as he was ordered and followed her. Upon reaching the bridge she sat down in the captions chair again saying "Ok begin explaining." taking a moment or two to collect his thoughts he started "As you know from the info you have I was part of a black list project called Olympus, this project was indented to make a new type of soldier and a new type of mechanized infantry. There solution was to make a soldier that could operate a new heavy walking tank we called them titans and we were the pilots. Project Olympus never had much success because they were to worried that if they deployed us in full force it would blow the cover of the project and so with the inability to achieve a good enough success rate in ops they shut it down, most of the members either joined the military or went home I was different so they put me in to stasis hoping to revive the project and use me to help, as you can see that went well." There was silence for a few seconds then Gates spoke up "How long ago was this?" "Well I went into stasis in 2035 I don't know what year it is now or if you use the same calendar now but I hope that helps." The room was silent again, finally Bear broke the silence by saying "That was a hundred and ninety eight years ago." A serious tone of shock in his voice. "So a anther question then, you had titans over a hundred years ago?" Gates asked stunned. "Well that depends what are titans to you" He said, Bear taped his data pad for a second and then showed him a picture "Like this" Alistar looked at the picture and then said "Yes" And with that another silence this one a little longer. After a few minuets Gates asked a question "From what I've seen in the data we have you have extensive training in all sorts of combat and strategy, is that true?" He adjusted his stance saying "Yes over ten years of combat training and military strategy, including reading Sun Tzu's The Art of War and teaching some classes on the subject" Gates turned and looked at Bear "What do you think?" He took a second to respond still recovering from his beating and the shock "I think, well its worth trying" Alistar looked from one to the other confused "Trying what? he asked. Gates looked back at him "The IMC shipped you out here to use you to win, we want to ask if you would be willing to help us" He stood in silence for a couple of seconds thinking finaly asking "Who exactly would I be joining?" Bear answered before Gates could "Well overall it would be the Militia but there are sub factions that really make it up you could join one of them or work as a freelance pilot" He stood still pondering for a moment and asked another question "How many factions are there and who are they?" Gates answered this time "There are three major factions, the Marauder Corr run by Commander Sarah Briggs she also runs the Special Recon Squadron or SRS a sub group of the MCOR. Then there's the Angel City Elite or ACEs under Commander Robert Taube but everybody calls him Barker He's ex IMC but he helps the Militia after an old friend of his dragged him in to help finish an opp. Lastly the 64 run by me we're the smallest group in the Militia but we hold our own" He replied faster then they were expecting "I'll do it, and if I could grab my gear from the cargo hold be for we get to Harmony it would be much appreciated" Gates stood up and said "Yes you can I'll go with you and send the rifleman up to the bridge" As she finneshed they started walking to the cargo hold. On the way down Alistar spoke up "Thanks for coming I really didn't want to get shot trying to explain this to your men" "Well I don't want you to get shot either now that you've agreed to help us" She replied and they continued walking.

* * *

Down in the cargo hold all the rifleman ended up going to the bridge as it would be more comfortable for the rest of the trip. Alistar had opened one of the crates, the one that Bear guessed was a locker and it seamed that he was right. Gates could see him dig out an over suit of a dull almost matte grey color and put it on along with several pieces of armor of the same grey color next he pulled out a pistol she didn't recognize and holstered it finally he grabbed a rifle she also didn't know and a helmet that looked just like the vanguard helmet that Cooper wore again the same grey. "Interesting armor." Gates said in a matter of fact way. "It doesn't look much right now but give me a sec." He said as he leaned down into the crate again this time pulling out a plate carrier tacvest with several extra armor plates on it and a small backpack with a wire running down to a jumpkit. She was a little surprised to see the jumpkit considering how old this stuff was, but none the less there it was. After he put on the vest and the backpack he hooked up the jumpkit and finaly put on his helmet saying. "Now the fun part." As she looked at him his gear began to cycle through many colors and camo patterns in quick succession. "Wow" was all she could say as he continued his equipment check. He began talking to a in helmet OS "Begin tactical ability check" "Standing by" "Cloaking" "Check" "Grapple" "Check" And he went on to check all of the tactical ability's that Gates had ever heard of "Ordnance check" "All ordnance check" "Well that's my kit, do you think I should wake up my titan now so we have a chance to explain things to him?" He asked looking at Gates. "Uh ya sure" she managed to say utterly dumbfounded at the level of tec she just saw. "Ok you might want to stand back a bit." he said stepping over to the third and largest crate. Doing as he suggested she watched as he put in the pass key and took a step back, with a slight groan of metal that hasn't moved in some time the crate opened to revile what looked like a vanguard class titan but based on what his armor did she decided not to take it for granted. He stepped forward reaching up and pushing a unseen button on the extended data core, it took a second as the data core came online it lighting up in the standard blue hew, it retracted in and the titan gave a small jolt a movement as it came fully online "Hello Alistar" it said upon seeing him "Hey Storm" Alistar replied with a hint of joy in his voice "It's been a wile since we last talked" "It has, Al who is this?" Strom said his gaze falling on Gates "Oh uh she's-" and he went silent for a few seconds and then Storm said "Nice to meet you Commander Gates" "Uh nice to meet you" was all she could say "Um my bad, Commander I have a miniature computer in my head and I can share memory's and large amounts of data between me and my titan, and I suppose I should introduce you two properly Gates this is TK-0421 TK this is Commander Gates as you know." As Alistar finneshed the titan turned to him and blinked. Suddenly Alistar said "No I don't know when we'll get there" with the silence so suddenly broken Gates jumped a little coming out of some deep thoughts, "Are you ok?" "Ya I'm fine" "sorry Storm was just wondering when we'll make it to Harmony" "We should be there in the next two hours or so, sorry Storm?" "Ya it's a reference to one of my favorite movies growing up his id number is, well I suppose no one would now it now." He finneshed. "Well I guess just get comfortable and wait till we arrive." Was all Gates said before she left to go back to bridge leaving the two of them alone in the cargo hold, she had to make some sense of all this before they docked at Harmony and she had to explain all of this


	3. Chapter 3 Trial by the word

Chapter 3: Trial by the word

The large loading doors in the cargo bay opened with a slight shudder to reveal a green planet with cities behind the military base they had landed in and behind that were mountains, big mountains in long chains peaks passing the few clouds that were there. He stopped and took his helmet off and took a deep breath in as he stepped off of the ship "Look there Storm mountains, I haven't seen a proper mountain in so long" Alistar said with both feelings of joy and longing. "You missed seeing mountains?" Gates asked walking up next to him "The place I grew up had some The Rocky Mountains actually, of North America I Haven't see them since I left." They stood in silence for a moment before Gates spoke up "We should get you in to see the Commanders" Nodding he began to follow her. Bear caught up with them to go the debriefing "Hey Bear I'm sorry for kicking the crap of you back there" Alistar said offering his hand to shake "No hard feelings, just some bruises to add to the collection" He replied accepting his hand. As they walked Alistar turned to Gates and asked "What are you going to do with Storm?" "He'll be taken to the titan garage until you come for him." " Ok I was just wondering." They finneshed talking as they entered what looked like a tactical analysis center, in here were two people who looked like they were waiting for them "Commanders Briggs, Barker this is Alistar Cambel the person of interest I mentioned" Gates said motioning to him. "Thank you Gates, you and Bear can wait outside wile we talk to Mister Cambel seeing as you have already heard this." Commander Briggs said flatly. "Ok" Was all Gates said in reply and walked out of the room taking Bear with her. "Now Mister Cambel where would you like to start?"

"That was a little odd." was all that bear seamed able to say at the moment "Kind of but not really, not saying I agree with it but not really." Gates replied with a thoughtful tone "What do you think there asking him?" he asked turning around "I don't know, probably the things they'd ask an IMC deserter. Hey I'm going to check and see if the rest of the crew made it want to come?" "Sure" With that the two of them left to look for were the 64 had landed.

"Come on Storm its been four days since we got here and all its been is questions waiting in my room and then more questions." Alistar said to Storm with a frustrated tone "At least there just asking they could be torturing you" "I suppose you have a point but that still doesn't help my mood, I'm going back now before someone starts asking questions that could get me in trouble" "Don't forget to tell your guards where you are going so they don't shoot you" Storm called out as he started walking away "Very funny" he turned and said unamused, the titan seamed to think it was funny chuckling to him self as he watched him go. Between the waiting and the questions seeing Storm was his only relief, though Storm didn't really have it any better than he did answering questions of his own. Who knew that wanting to join the Militia would be so hard, he guessed being found by the IMC wasn't helping any maybe they would let him out to do some exercise or some thing he would have to ask gates. Making it back to the room he was given he opened the sliding door to see Gates sitting in the one chair he had "Um" was all he said "I wanted to check in on you to see if you had gone crazy yet or not" she said rising from the chair "Not to seam rude but why?" She started to say something but stopped short, she didn't know why they barely knew each other. "Well I should know better than to turn down somebody new to talk to" He said snapping her out of her thoughts "Glad to see you still have a positive attitude on the whole thing" She replied joking a little "Well I'm glade that I can still fake at not being board" He joked back causing her to laugh a little under her helmet "They don't let you out, not even to beat up rifleman and top pilots?" "No you and Bear are the only ones who seam to do that." With his reply the room went quiet, after a second she spoke up "I tried to see if I could convince them to give you a little more freedom but" she trailed off trying to gather her thoughts "let me guess they said no" "Ya, sorry" she said "Its fine" he said as he walked over to the bed "Thanks for trying, you actually beat me to asking you at least I have an answer" "Again sorry I couldn't help" She said walking to the door "Like I said its fine" He replied flatly sitting on the bed. "I'll see you later?" it was a question she really didn't want to give an answer to right now, so she nodded and left closing the door behind here. It wasn't fine he had volunteered just like anybody else and had trusted them, he had trusted her and she didn't want to betray that trust.

8 days later

"Board so board Storm" Alistar shared his thoughts with his titan through their neural link "I'm glad you told me Alistar its only the tenth time in the last hour" "Storm you sound a little irked what could possibly be bothering you?" The sarcasm dripping off of every word as he spoke "You know you are utterly unbearable some times" He said sounding more exasperated, Alistar just laughed "Its not funny AL." "Ok fine I'll stop for today" "You should stop permanently" "But what's the fun in that" "You're an ass you know that right?" As Storm said that there came a sudden knocking on the door "One sec Storm" He said getting up from laying upside down on his bed "Its ok to come in" He called out standing up, the door opened and Gates walked in "I finaly did it" She said as she came to stop "You did, you got them to let me out a little more?" His question came so fast and so full of hope it seamed that if she had waited any longer he really would have gone crazy "Better a chance to prove your self, a war games tournament has come up and there letting me test you by fielding you as part of the 64." She said hoping herself that this is what he wanted to hear "Yes finaly!" And he made a small jump as he said it "When is this war games?" "Tomorrow and the whole Militia will be involved" "How much gear will I have?" "All of it you wear it in the sim pod and it scans your equipment and gives it to you in the sim, and we link titans to so Storm will be there as well" She said relieved that it was helping "You said that I would be fielded in the 64 is that going to be a problem for you?" The question caught her off guard she hadn't expected that he'd worry about her sticking her neck out for him "No it isn't" She said "What are the rules of the game?" He asked sitting down on the bed, she sat in the chair across from him and began "Well each faction is competing against all of the others at once, the goal is for one faction to achieve the most points by the end of the day. Points can be earned by killing or capturing opponents the higher they are in the chain of command for that faction the more points, you can also get points by stealing intel from your opponents base there's not much else its fairly simple" "Ok like you said sounds simple enough, kill capture or steal I think I can do that" "Ok then see you tomorrow, oh and I'll have them give you your gear back" She said on her way out "Thanks again Gates" She heard him say as she walked out, she stopped and turned around saying "Don't let me down hmm" "I won't" She didn't think he would but the games weren't done yet and there was a lot still to do tomorrow would tell all.

"Are you good to go?" came a familiar voice from behind him, turning around Alistar could see Bear walking up "Ya its been a wile since I was in combat so the sim will do me some good" "Well I can attest to your hand to hand" Bear said chuckling slightly "How many forces are the 64 deploying, I haven't seen a whole lot come over here" He asked looking around "The 64 has never been big so Gates only takes the best, well the best ones that she likes anyway" "What do you mean?" "Gates says that were a family and it is true in a way its hard to describe to some one not in the 64" "I get what your talking about in project Olympus we couldn't call home no letters no nothing we became dead to the world so to speak, we had to find family in other ways" "Sounds like it was rough, rougher than the files say?" "Yes it was, but it seams that's its time to get going" Alistar said motioning to Gates who had just walked in. They walked over to the holo table themselves "Ok down to business" Gates began as the rest of the 64 came up "As usual we are out numbered so the traditional tactics dig in and hold hopefully the other factions beat the snot out of each other and we can pick off the remnants" "Ma'am may I speak?" Alistar spoke up as he walked forwarded "Granted" "I got the rule book last night and there seams to be a forgotten rule" "And that would be?" All eyes were on him wondering if the guy they had been guarding was going to screw them over or if he had a way to win for once "Well if you capture a enemy commander you get points, but if they surrender to you all of that factions points are transferred to your faction and then are no longer able to participate in the match." There was silence for a moment or two, Then Gates asked "What exactly are you proposing Cambel?" "I'm saying that if we wait a wile like you planed hold up and defend letting them build up points" "And then get one of there commanders to surrender to us I get it now" Bear said interrupting "Yes that's the plan, so what do you think?" He asked hope in his voice "Which Commander do you want to grab?" She asked still wary "I was thinking Barker, The ACEs aren't as tacitly proficient as the MCOR but they have more experienced troops so they will stay in the fight longer than the MCOR's and Barker is known for some reckless choices so I don't think he will be that well defended" As Alistar finneshed Gates turned to Bear "What do you think Bear?" "It could work after all we grabbed Barker two or three games ago but with him not surrendering they just took him back from us" Bear said in a thoughtful tone "Well Alistar I agree with your plan What do you need?" She asked turning to face him now, surprised by the sudden question it took him a minute to answer "Not much at all in fact if you will let me I could do it by my self and not reduce the numbers you need to defend" She looked at him for a second and then agreed with "Ok but don't mess it up I'm putting my trust in you to get this done, do you understand?" "Yes ma'am" he said snapping into a quick salute "Ok then every body to your sim pods games begin in two" And with that the 64 began walking away Gates grabbed Alistar's arm turning him around saying "Why would you want to do this solo, is it to prove your self to them because you don't need to" "No its not, like I said I looked through the rule book last night and I Looked at the win loss history and the 64 only made second twice that's as high as you've ever gotten I wanted to help since you are helping me" He sounded sincere in all of what he said and it surprised her "Well if that's all I guess its fine, but are you sure that you want to go alone?" "Ya I should be fine I'm used to working alone" "Ok but remember don't let me down" "Wasn't planning on it" he said putting on his helmet and jogging over to his pod.

"How long have we been at this?" Bear shouted over the multitude of explosions going off from the exchange between the ACEs and MCOR that they had gotten caught in the middle of when they were doing a little recon "Twenty minuets or so, buy hey it could be worse" Alistar shouted back "How? How could it be worse?" "We could have been here the full six hours we've been in the game" "You make a good point, hey there letting up a little lets try and make it back to base" "Right you lead I'll follow" "Ok on my mark" They waited tense and ready "MARK" Sprinting from crater to crater they made it from the trench they had been in to the tunnel that ran to safety where they could make it back to the 64 undetected. Entering the tunnel they stopped to get there breath "Well that was fun" Alistar said talking around deep breaths in and out "Fun, fun you call that fun you know I wondered if you were crazy when you asked to grab Barker alone but now I know you are" "Come on Bear got to have a little fun on the job" He said patting Bear on the shoulder starting down the tunnel "Speak for your self" Bear replied following him. After making it to the bunker the 64 was using as an HQ they made there way into the center to the command room they had set up. As they walked in Gates was looking over a holo table, at the sound of them entering she looked up "You sure took your time getting here" He and Bear walked over and linked to the table to show her what they had learned "From the looks of things the MCOR has more ground but the ACEs is holding there's better" Bear started and Alistar continued "Yes we were able to intercept some short range comms, from the sound of them the command of the MCOR are worried that they might have over extended" "And the reason we were late" Bear said adding the skirmish they had just escaped from. Gates looked at the map again for a minuet, finaly looking up she said "Alistar both sides or approaching the number of points they need to win I think now would be the time for your little walk" "Yes ma'am" He said turning to walk out. It didn't take long to make it to the ACEs compound they were to busy with the MCOR, activating his cloaking he began to move slowly to minimize the distortion of his silhouette and entered the compound. There weren't many people inside so he began to work his way to the command center, once there he peaked in a window to get a look inside what he saw was almost underwhelming two guards not really paying attention and Barker sitting n a chair with his eyes closed not asleep but he seamed to be thinking. He moved to the door and stepped in pulling his sidearm he took aim then pulled the trigger twice in quick succession a moment later both rifleman hit the floor 'dead'. At the sound of the gunfire Barker stood up and looked around reaching for his B3 Wingman, Alistar moved ever so slowly into the room and off the left hoping Barker would do as he predicted. As Barker stepped forward to examine the body's on the floor stepping past where Alistar was hiding he began to peak the corner leaning of to one side checking the corner Alistar moved forward taking advantage of Barker's center of balance being off he grabbed his Wingman and pushed with his shoulder nocking him down and pulling the gun from his hands. Barker now on the floor look up in surprise to where Alistar was decloaking "Well done kid" he said moving to a sitting position "Alright I'll tell you now I'm to old for a hand to hand fight right now and there is no body left on base so I'm yours, what do you want with me?" "I would like your surrender if you don't mind" Alistar said calmly "I see, it seams that Sarah remembered that old rule" "Not Sarah" "What?" "I'm Gates's little project" "Well I'll be, let me guess you read the book?" "Ya I did I figured that I could help the 64 win" "Was it just for the 64?" "No its not, I owe her for saving me I should repay her in the best way I can" "I see, well kid you got me I Barker of ACEs surrender." When he finished the ACEs were removed from the board and all there points transferred to the 64 "Thanks Barker" Alistar said as he handed him back his wingman. As he was walking out his radio chirped in his ear he opened the channel "Alistar this is Gates the MCOR have moved there attention to us now we need you back here to help hold them off over" "I'm on my way" was all said closing the channel he marked a spot on the ground and called for a titanfall. Ten seconds latter Strom crashed down and Alistar mounted up "Ready to go" Storm Said as the cockpit closed "Strom we need to hurry the 64 needs us" "Understood transferring control to pilot its time to run Al."


	4. Chapter 4 Locked Memories and Forgotten

Chapter 4: Locked Memories and Forgotten Pain

"I was told once that no matter how good I was or how much training I received that nothing would prepare me for the chaos of battle, the unescapable feeling of doom and confusion and no matter what anybody said no one else did either. And if they say that they do know there either lying for some reason or there so blinded by there own arrogance that aren't worth trusting."

Stopping to take a breath in between the onslaught of the MCOR Alistar looked around at the remnants of the 64 still standing, his gaze falling on the bunkers entrance. Seeing Bear come out limping he disembarked saying "Wait here Storm I'm going to see what happened" Storm said nothing but began to help the rifleman hold of the MCOR. "Did they hit the bunker?" Alistar asked covering his head from some rubble out of habit "Ya they did, they hit about a minuet or two after ACEs surrendered, we held for a bit but they breached the compound before you got back" Bear said moving back into the bunker Alistar following him "What was the point did they grab our intel?" Alistar asked closing a door behind him "No they did a smash and grab to put it bluntly, they grabbed Gates and left" As Bear finneshed Alistar looked at him shocked "They took her just like that? How did they do it?" "Well" Bear started as he opened the door to the command room "They breached the roof and dropped in killing the rifleman in here and grazing me grabbed Gates and left just as fast" As Bear was talking Alistar could see the open ceiling and rubble on the floor bodies in the corners and no Gates "Do you know where they took her?" "Ya the only place they can MCOR command in the town North East of here, but we cant give up the manpower here to take her back we need both our base and commander to win when the timer runs out in forty five minuets and the MCOR knows it. We're wining on points right now but if Gates isn't here in time we will only place second" "I'll go and get her" Bear looked shocked well as shocked as some one in full armor could "Are you serious?" "Yes I am look I can leave my titan here to help hold the base" "You are defiantly crazy, alone into the MCORs base of operations the best defended base in the game right now" "Do you have a better idea?" Bear took a second and said reluctantly "Fine go but no heroics we need you both back to win" "Both?" Alistar looked at him curiously "IF you make it the men are going to want to thank you before the replay not after, now go your running out of time" Alistar left the bunker and quickly found Storm and explained things to him "Be carful, and don't end up like last time" Storm called after him as he ran.

Quietly he moved from building to building looking for a computer to grab some plans of this town so that he could find Gates faster, walking into a building that looked like a library he hit pay dirt. He had found the comm room and it would have everything he needed, stepping over the door frame he could see who was in there better what looked like four rifleman and a man he only knew as Bish. He had been present serval times when he was questioned, he moved further into the room making his way to an unoccupied data terminal. Slowly lifting the keyboard with a little help from his data knife trying not to make any noise, activating the knife and putting it in the port he began searching the files for any info on the brig carful to keep a eye on his cloaking timer as not to get caught, he found what he was looking for the brig was in the middle of town and the system had a map of it to. Pulling his knife out of the computer he began to leave when he had an idea moving quickly he put his plan into action, checking that all was in place he began to move to where Gates was being held. Once inside he decided to deactivate his cloaking to save it for later, he followed the path in his HUD realizing that the hallways spiraled in until it made it to the cells. He didn't like using the halls as there was no way to hide from anybody in here but they were his only choice so he pressed forward, after a few minuets he could hear walking in front of him this was not the time he had only one more corner to go. Suddenly the foot steps stopped and they started again but this time faster they were running at him now he had to think fast, stepping up to the corner and waiting for the first rifleman. The rifleman rounded the corner at a jog stepping out he caught the first rifleman's gun in his left hand punching him with his right killing him instantly the other three rifleman ran past a little unable to control there momentum. Turning Alistar swiped his leg under the nearest one nocking him to the ground and grabbing his gun not wanting to waste his own ammo he took aim and fired once hitting his target, but before he could adjust his aim to the third one the man on the ground kicked him pushing him of balance making him drop the gun. The third man raised his weapon to fire but Alistar aimed a kick his way catching him in the knee forcing him to reach down and catch himself before hitting the floor, standing up at the same time as the second man he stepped back a little the rifleman followed his standing up by throwing a punch at him dodging the punch by side stepping he grabbed the man and jumped forwarded at the same time slamming him through the wall. Landing on the other side Alistar turned pulling his sidearm and taking aim and fired twice dropping the third man, looking down and seeing that the other man had died when he pushed him through the wall. Standing up he looked around to see he was in the cell room and in the cell in the far right corner was Gates "What the hell?" Is what she said after seeing what had just happened "You ready to go?" Alistar asked walking up to the control panel. Gates moved and began to say something but was cutoff "She's not going anywhere" Turning Alistar saw another four rifleman and "Commander Briggs" He said flatly. They stood in the hole he had made when he crashed through the wall "You seam to have caused a lot of trouble today" She said stepping over rubble, Alistar had an idea but the rifleman had to follow her into the room "What no reply?" she said motioning the rifleman to take his weapons, as they moved in he put his plan into action. Taking a step forward and kneeling he bowled a flash bang and a smoke grenade wile phase shifting at the same time, the rifleman fired bullets missing there mark as the flash bang and smoke went off rendering them blinded. Stepping out of the phase he fired four more times and the rifleman hit the floor Commander Briggs regretting not wearing a helmet coughing looking in the direction of the gun fire she ran forward hitting him head on nocking the pistol out of his hands, grabbing a knife from her vest and taking the proper stance she lunged forward aiming the knife at his ribs. Sidestepping he moved to grab her wrist but his foot got caught on one of the rifleman's body and had to take a stutter step to avoid falling, taking the opportunity as he was slightly bent over she adjusted her grip and brought the knife down in an over head swing. Rolling his weight over he could see her arm coming down and he reached for her wrist again this time he got it rolling her arm to above and behind her trying to force her to drop it or loosen her grip on it, after a moment of neither happening and the continued struggle he moved his free hand and put three fingers in her open mouth and pulled on her cheek forcibly turning her head making her drop the knife as she tried to pull his hand out. Once the knife hit the floor he let go as well but he had been supporting her weight so as he let go she fell to the floor, Briggs moved her head and could see the knife and began to move towards it reaching one arm for it BANG she stopped moving Alistar had grabbed his sidearm again and shot her before she got to the knife. "You ok?" He asked walking up to Gates's cell again "I feel like I should ask you the same thing" She said walking out of the cell once he shut it down "I'm fine we need to get back to base we only have fifteen minuets left" Was his response "Well I hope you have a plan to get out of here fast because we don't have time to do quietly" She said following him out of the room "I do I left a present in the comm room when I was looking for where they were holding you" He replied hefting a detonator in one hand "You'll blow up the comm room and we slip away in the chaos?" "Yes" "Well whenever your ready" She whispered as they took cover in the entry way "Once the blast goes off wait three seconds for them to get over there and then run" He said calmly lifting the detonator "Got it" She replied looking at the building "Three…. Two…. ONE" The explosion rattled the very ground they stood on and a fireball three or four times the size of a titan raced up into the sky "Wait.." Alistar said looking at the rifleman tenseness in both his body and voice "Now" They began to run South West as fast as possible.

Once they had cleared the minimum safe distance they slowed a little "I've been meaning to ask is Bear ok?" She called to him "He's good the entry team just winged him when they got you" He replied through heavy breaths, with that said they continued onwards. "Look sir over there!" The rifleman next to Bear said pointing to his left a little, Bear raised his binoculars to look and it was indeed them "OPEN THE GATE!" He yelled down at some rifleman a second or two later the 'gate' opened it couldn't hold a stiff breeze back but it was a boundary marker. He leaned out from the wall and shouted "RUN!" They tried to speed up but they looked spent "Come on only ninety seconds" He said to himself. Suddenly they stopped he began to wonder what they were doing and then Storm came running over the wall, when he made it to them he reached down and grabbed Gates and held her for a second looking at the camp Bear guessed what was coming and turned and called for medic to be on standby when he looked back he saw that his guess was actuate as Storm took two steps forward and hurled Gates the last two thousand yards or so she landed three seconds before the game ended. "Good timing" Alistar said to Storm as he carried him back "Yes it was, I'm glad this is a sim and not real I wasn't sure that she would live" He replied and continued walking "Are you serious? But we did that all the time" Alistar said in shock "That's true but its been awhile and you should know that I can get out of practice" "Well don't tell Gates that she wouldn't like it all that much" "Especially after that little conversation you two had" "What are you talking about" "That 'trust me' and her 'I do' Ha" "Shut up eh your seeing things that aren't there" They finneshed there argument as they crossed the wall and when they did the whole compound went quiet for a second Then they all began to cheer and celebrate Alistar joined in glad to see them happy at having won. After a few minuets the sim told them to exit before in shutdown, they all stopped and relaxed and one by one disappeared Alistar did the same and soon he was looking at the inside of the sim pod reaching up and pulling the manual release to open the pod. It took a seconded to open and decompress when it did he could see the 64 continuing there celebrations, as he stepped out of the pod a bunch of rifleman walked past him thanking him he shook there hands but he was confused as to why they were thanking him. Walking over to Gates he got more handshakes and thanks as he went before he could ask Gates she turned to him and offered her hand to him he took it still a little confused "You looked confused" She said when he didn't say anything for a second "I am a little" He replied "I don't get it I didn't do-" "You did do something" She said cutting him off "You got us to win we haven't won ever almost three hundred games and you helped us finaly win" She stepped back a little as she finneshed and the whole 64 erupted in cheers "Commander Gates, Cambel came with me" It was Sarah Briggs and Barker was with her a smile on his face. Gates said nothing but went along and so did Alistar. They walked in silence until they reached one of the debriefing rooms "Commander Gates I wou-" Sarah began but was cut of by Gates "With respect Commander Briggs I think that Cambel has earned his place in the Militia twice over, not only today by out thinking all of our top strategists but that day he agreed to come willingly and join. I think that all these questions are to much and he should be offered a position in one of the factions." When she finneshed Alistar was a little shocked at her outburst but he stepped forward "Ma'am I would like to say a few words" Sarah looked at him then said "Go ahead" "Thank you I would like to join and help in any way I can so I am willing to wait for your-" His words come to a sudden stop his body tensed up his eyes looking off to nowhere, after a moment or two his eyes rolled up and dropped to the floor "Alistar!" Gates said kneeling next to him trying to hold him down as his body began twitching violently "SOME BODY CALL A MEDIC!" Barker yelled as he knelt down next to Gates helping her hold him still. 'Alistar you promise me ok you promise that you won't go' images began flashing in his head 'The team has lost to much, promise you won't abandon the team' "Hold on kid" "Come on dam it, you didn't save my sorry arse to give up now hold on"


	5. Chapter 5 Holding on to Nothing

Chapter 5: Holding on to Nothing

'Al I want you to promise me you will stay with the team' "Dr. Tanoge I think your pushing to far" 'and not take your new status to heart.' "Jones its fine he can go a little further" 'No don't just say it, you need to mean it or the rest of us won't trust you' "Doctor that's to far your going to rupture his cerebral cortex, I'm pulling you out" The pain came to a slow stop and he could think a little clearer 'Promise me Al' He finaly fell asleep before he could think about what had happened.

It took him a moment to realize that he was awake this time and not in another dream, opening his eyes and immediately closed them again "That's bright" He said sorely his mouth dry, rolling to his right he opened his eyes again shielding them with his hand. As he moved somebody walked up "Take it easy" He looked up to see a doctors assistant handing him a small glass of water "Drink this slowly" He took the glass and began sipping the water. The assistant turned and called over some body else "Orderly go tell the commander he's awake" The orderly nodded and walked away "How long have I been here?" Alistar asked looking around seeing that he was is the infirmary "Two days" He replied taking the emptied glass from him. "Only two, last time I was in an infirmary it was four weeks" He said as he pushed himself up a little "Funny I don't remember seeing you" The assistant replied "Well it was over a hundred years ago" Alistar said calmly and the assistant looked at him like he had lost his mind, Alistar simply smiled leaning back into his pillow. It was several minuets before the orderly returned with the three commanders of the Militia, They walked strait over to him stopping in a semi circle at the end of the bed he was in. Barker leaned forward grabbing the rail at the foot of the bed "You sure have an interesting way of getting somebody's attention kid" Barker said as he did "Well I never liked doing things the normal way" Alistar joked sitting up a little higher "Ya I've notis-" Barker started but was cutoff "Barker you can talk later we need to ask some questions first" Sarah said as she pulled out a data pad and she continued with "Fist of all" But was cutoff herself by Gates "How are you? Do you think you can answer some of these?" Sarah was quiet for a second realizing that she had forgotten to ask what state he was in before starting "I'm good, a slight headache but I'm good" They all nodded and Sarah started again "Do you have any idea what happened?" "No I don't, I remember hearing things and old memories but I have no clue" "So you don't know what you were saying at the time?" "I was talking?" "That's a no Sarah" "Barker I'm well aware of that" "What was I saying?" He asked confusion mounting in is mind "You were talking about a Dr. Tanoge, he's been a SRS target of interest for six or seven months now. We've never told anybody about him so you can see why I'm a little worried that when you star spouting his name in a seizure" "I see your point, do you know why I was saying his name this Dr. Tanoge" She shifted her weight and sighed saying "No to be honest I was hoping you that you would know" "I see" was all he said. The four of them were silent for a moment and then Barker straitened up and began walking out saying "When they let you out come and see me I'll buy you a drink" Alistar called after him "I'll do that" Barker waved behind him as he walked out, Sarah said nothing but walked out in silence. Gates stayed at the foot of the bed for a second watching the two of them leave and then moved to sit in the chair next to the head of the bed, Alistar sat all the way up and swung his legs to face her. She sat there for a second looking at him studying the details of his face, there was the things she had seen before his dark brown hair almost curling out of control his nose a little bigger than normal and bent at the end where somebody had broken it. But then there was the things she hadn't really looked at before, like the two scars he had on his face one ran down from his left temple to his chin it started at the hair line and just missed his left eye ending just under his mouth in a little J shape the second ran from his right ear down following his jaw line also ending at his chin. His eyes they were sunken in some with his brow jutting out shading his eyes giving him a permanently tired look, then the eyes themselves were a dark grey with black ring on the outside one could look at them and get lost in the depth almost instantly with only a hint of finding the bottom. They sat there not saying any thing for a wile and then Gates spoke up "Are you sure your ok?" He leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees "Ya I feel ok, not combat ready but I can walk I think" "You were also saying 'I promise' a lot when you went down, do you know why?" "Ya I do I made a promise to somebody a long time ago and I never kept it since I'm sitting here now" "Oh, did it have to do with project Olympus?" "Yes" the short and almost harsh answer surprised her "I take it you didn't like it there?" "No" "From what I've seen and read on the project it seams that they made you who you are" "More than you know, but I'm just an echo of some thing best left in the past" The room went silent again for a wile, then she remembered something "I've got something for you" she said reaching into one of her pockets and pulling out a small pin with the 64's logo on it "Now you don't know how the factions recruit pilots over a certain skill level but this is how, each faction gives the pilot a pin of there logo and the pilot puts the factions pin of there choice on there uniform until a proper patch can be issued so here" She finneshed handing him the pin. He couldn't think of anything to say finaly saying "Thanks" as he accepted the pin, she stood and looked at him again after a second he said "What?" She didn't know what had happened then it donned on her "Sorry I was looking at some thing in my HUD" "Oh ok, you know its hard to tell what your doing some times since you are always wearing your helmet" He said shifting his position. She exhaled a little saying "Not always" "Well its pretty close then" He responded teasing her a little "I see that your seizure hasn't effected your ability to be an arse" She joked back as she started walking away "You've been talking to Storm haven't you" "Maybe a little" and with that she left the infirmary.

He took a deep breath in as he look out at the city next to the base, he had slipped away from the medical staff and made his way to an observation platform. "You know the doctor on duty is going crazy looking for you" came from behind him, turning he saw Bear standing there "That woman is driving me nuts, I'm in perfect health and she insists on bed rest" He said turning back to the view, Bear walked up next to him and leaned on the rail "I'm guessing you had a clash of opinion" "Ya we did, I mean all my tests come back clear no problems and still 'you can't leave the infirmary you need bed rest' I don't get it" "I did some reading up on you in the Olympus files" "And?" "I think I will trust the opinion of the secret super soldier with four doctorates in the medical field over a Militia trained one, nothing against her" "Thanks Bear" "No problem" "Why are you up here did she send you?" "No Gates did, she didn't want you wandering off with no body to help you if you had another problem" "That's was nice of her" "I heard she gave you a pin" "Then you heard correctly, she gave it to me four days ago" "Hmm, You know that's the first pin she's handed out in two years" "Really?" "Ya, mostly the 64 gets our assigned troops on lone we're a small group as you've seen" "Two years, who was it then?" "A guy named Davis, he was good" "Was?" "He's not dead if that's what your asking, he and another pilot from the 64 started there own faction they handle all of the Militia's extractor ops" "Oh, I take it that Gates just doesn't hand out pins to any good pilot" "Your right she doesn't, like I told you before the 64 is a family and she try's to keep it that way nobody she doesn't like or she doesn't think will fit in" "I see" "I think you do, well come on best get back before that doctor finds you and ties you to the bed" "Is that what she was yelling?" "Ya lets go"

"Harmony command this is strike 5 come in command' strike 5 this command go ahead' command we are reporting mission failed we're RTB with SRS injured on board requesting medical on standby for fifteen walking wounded, seven stable and three critical over' confirmed strike 5 inbound with twenty five wounded medical will be waiting command out'

"I can't believe myself I spend six days trying to get out of the infirmary and now I'm going back, at least this time I'll be doing some thing" Alistar thought to himself as he ran to the infirmary to help with the incoming wounded, as he ran in he could see all types of medical personal getting ready "Cambel over here" it was the doctor he had disagreed with. Jogging over she said " I don't have the people to work in here and do landing pad triage" "So you need me out there" "Yes, we've only got twenty five coming in this time so when your done get in here and scrub up" "Got it" He said running out to the landing pad. Once he got to the pad he could see orderly's medics and corman standing there with stretchers and gurneys waiting, one set of gear he recognized "Bear what are you doing here" he said walking up "I'm the corman in Gates's team so I'll help" "Got it" They waited in silence for a minuet or two then over the PA "strike 5 cleared to land pad two" They all began to move to pad two waiting on the edge of the boundary. Then over head they heard the familiar sound of a ship jumping in, strike 5 began descending to the pad at a speed only a medivac pilot would try. Eight seconds later he was down and the rear loading ramp came down, they all rushed in checking the first person they got to and soon the cabin of the ship filled with sound of medical teams working "I've got a head injury here his pupils are dilated and unresponsive" "This ones bleeding into his belly" "Orderly help me with this" "Help me hold him down" "Corman I need a tourniquet here" Alistar stopped at a boy that looked barely old enough to fight, checking him over he saw his chest wound lifting the bandage he could see the round had nicked his hart. As he looked blood started shooting out at high pressure "Shit" ducking out of the stream he reached in and grabbed the artery stopping the loss of blood temporarily "CORMAN!" He shouted a second later two corman stood next to him "Help me get him inside" They nodded grabbing the ends of the stretcher and lifting it out of the cradle it sat in. "Ok go" Moving at a brisk pace all the way in they made it inside and one of the Nurses ran over "What's wrong?" She asked with a triage card in her hand "The bullet nicked his heart I need a table, tools and some help" Alistar said and the Nurse ran over to a door waving them in, as they walked past she put a mask on him the corman set him down on the operating table and ran back out side "Ok Nurse lets start" He said grabbing a clamp.

Gates walked into the infirmary and looked around not seeing Alistar she asked a passing nurse "Where is Cambel?" The nurse turned and pointed to the OR "In there, he's been working on that kid for seven hours now" Gates thanked the nurse and walked over to the window to see Alistar and another doctor bent over somebody working almost endlessly. After ten minuets they both straitened up and looked at each other and began to walk out pulling off there gloves and masks, they held the door open as two orderly's pushed the man to a bed. Alistar let the door swing shut and turned to look at gates "Will he make it?" She asked following him as he walked to a chair "Ya I think he will, the bullet shattered when it hit his rib and it took us this long to find all the pieces thirty two to be precise" He said taking a cup of coffee from the table next to him which seamed to have been laid out for the medical teams "You say us but I only started three hours ago" said the other doctor that walked out with Alistar "And I'm glad you did I'd still be in there if you didn't" he said reaching over to shake his hand "Nice to meet you?" "The names Sam" "Well thanks again Sam" Sam nodded and walked off Gates looked at Alistar and sat next to him "I was wondering where you were when Bear walked into his room and passed out five hours ago" She said after a little "I was working" He replied "I see that" She looked over at the boy he had saved resting in a bed she saw a woman and a child walk into the infirmary. They walked up to a nurse and talked for a bit and the nurse pointed at the boy and then walked them over, they stood there a wile talking to the nurse and then Alistar stood up and walked over to them. When he got there they talked a little and then the child a little girl ran from her mothers side and gave tried to give Alistar a hug but only got his knees, he stopped her knelt down and gave her a proper hug. After a little more talking Alistar walked back over and sat down again "He's a local boy, that's his mother and sister" he said answering her unasked question. "How did they know?" She asked looking at him "He told them when he left, and when they heard the call for all medical personal on our PA they began to come here to see if he was ok" "You know you saved that family's future right?" "I saved his but he saved more, he jumped in front of there comms officer when he was calling for evac saved the platoon" They sat there for a wile, finaly Gates said "You look like you cloud use some sleep, and that reminds me the reason I came to talk to you we upgraded you room to an actual room I'll take you there now if you like" "That sounds great" He said standing up, She led him to the room. Once they were there he thanked her and went in crashing on the bed not bothering to get undressed he slept.


	6. Chapter 6 Life on Repeat

Chapter 6: Life on Repeat

"Why dose waking up suck so much?" Alistar groaned rolling out of bed and looking at his clock, it was 06:16 he had gotten some sleep and that would have to do. Standing up and stretching his sore legs and back he noticed his new room had a shower and he planed to use it. After he showered he left his room and went looking for the mess hall a few minuets of wandering later he found himself near an exit and from behind him he heard Gates call to him. Turning he could see her jogging up "You look better" She said catching up "I feel better but I'm a little lost, I can't find the mess hall" "That's funny I was going to go there after I found you" "Well lets go then, Why were you looking for me?" He asked as they started walking "I wanted to see how you were doing after your session in the OR last night and to tell you that all the commanders agreed to let you prove your self in a real combat mission" "That was nice of them, I'm sure that you pushed them a little" He said looking at her "Only a little like you said but you shouldn't be complaining, though I think you have made your own decision" She replied pointing at the 64 pin he had on his uniform, he let out a small chuckle but said nothing. They walked into the mess hall and jumped in line grabbing trays, Alistar looked at the food wondering what was for breakfast and seeing a military standard of steak and eggs he looked around the room and found what he was looking for three squads of men in almost full combat rig finishing there meal he guessed that the rest of the troops were already gathering for briefing. Waiting there turn they shuffled down the line filling up there trays, coming to the end of the line Alistar looked for a table seeing a empty one he walked over and sat down. Gates sat across from him and removed her helmet he looked up and said in mock shock "A miracle has just happened" She looked at him smiling and replied just as sarcastically "Keep it down or it might not happen again" He smiled to and took the opportunity to see what she looked like. Her hair was a light brown and looked almost red in sun light she had it pulled back in a bun so it fit in her helmet, her face was pale but not like she was sick it probably was because she never took her helmet off and there was a small circular scar on her chin apart from that her features were soft nothing stuck out on its own except her eyes they were a dark deep blue that you could get lost in verry easily if you weren't carful. He grabbed his fork saying "Now that just wouldn't do not at all" She laughed at his comment and started eating, they sat talking as they ate enjoying a decent conversation for once not one filled with questions on loyalty or the stability of his mind it was nice to slow down and be people not a commander and a super soldier who had more than once come to close to loosing his humanity.

* * *

2 Days Later

Alistar sat in the briefing room waiting for Gates to show up and give them the run down on the assignment they'd been given, Bear sat next to him spinning an empty bullet casing in between thumb and forefinger. After a few minuets Gates walked in and they all stood up and snapped to attention "At ease" She said looking around the room, they all sat down again and she began "The IMC have set up a research station in the old colony that the members of the IMS Odyssey built serval years ago" As she spoke the holo table came to life in front of her and she began pointing to it helping clarify the details "Here is the facility's mane power station it has two primary generators and three back ups Bear you and your team will knock out the power station first before moving on" The plan was good it was to kill or capture as many of the researchers and command team as possible and make the base inoperable. Bear would lead the main team making entry on the compound and Gates well Gates hadn't said what she or Alistar would be doing "There is a landing pad here team two will set up there and provide sniper cover for team one, team two will be Cambel and my self any questions?" The room was quite for a second then Alistar spoke up "Isn't that pad a little close for proper sniper cover?" Gates looked at him and said "Yes it is a bit more than a little but I'm not that good with a long rifle proper so I will use a DMR, unless you can use one" Alistar stood up and moved up to the table saying "I can if you have one and I would recommend here this ridge is a better position to overlook the station" Pointing to a spot on the map "That's over twenty three hundred meters away" Bear said astounded "Is that a problem for the any of the rifles I can use?" Alistar asked looking at him "Well the only rifle that can hit hard enough at that range if the Kraber-AP its old school but it could get the job done I guess" "You guess" "Not many people shoot at that range in the Militia" "I see what do you mean old school and what caliber is it" "Well it doesn't have hyper velocity rounds so there is bullet drop as for the caliber it's a 14.5x114mm round a 57 caliber" "Well hyper velocity rounds weren't around when I went to sniper school so I'll be fine, just let me look at the rifle before we go" Gates looked at him and said "You can look at it when we leave here before we go to the dropships" He nodded and studied the map more, Gates looked around and asked "Any more questions?" Everybody Stood still some shook there heads "Ok Take off is in twenty be at your dropship by fifteen dismissed" They all began working on there last minuet prep and Gates looked at Alistar saying "Come on the armory's this way" He followed her to the armory, as they walked in an older man stood up from behind a desk and said "Welcome commander what can I do for you today?" Gates shook his hand and explained what they needed "Really not many people want to use one of those, let me see I think I have one come back here and lets see" They followed the old man back to a fire room where the weapons were kept Alistar leaned forward ducking under a ammo crate and asked "Excuse me but what's your name?" The man turned with a large four foot long rifle in his hands "My name is Seth Rogen, and this is the rifle your looking for" handing Alistar the weapon. He hefted it getting a feel for the weight of it then leveled it checking the balance "I've got a holo range if you want to try it" Seth said pointing to the range "I would" Alistar said stepping up to the bench and setting the Kraber on the rest and sitting down Seth and Gates stood next to him looking through spotter scopes. Alistar turned to the computer and set the distance to one hundred meters to check the zero on the rifle a holo target appeared at the right range, he grabbed a magazine and loaded it in checking if it seated properly then racked the bolt back and forward loading the first round. Sighting up he took a breath in and then let it out and repeated this for a second or two then he exhaled stopped and squeezed the trigger the Kraber fired with a sound like an explosion ending with a cracking sound and the holo target turned red for a second then back to blue. "Not bad, but can you do better?" Seth Asked from his right Alistar said nothing but changed the range to two thousand and five hundred meters "A little over confident don't you think?" Seth asked Gates but she said nothing she knew he could do it he only did things he could do and he never intently tried to show off. Alistar did the same thing inhale and exhale after four or five seconds he exhaled and fired again the Kraber discharged again with the same sound, a second passed two, three, four Gates began to wonder if he could hit the target then the target lit up red again and this time Seth reached over and had the target moved closer to see "I'll be" Was all he could say "Its dead center" Gates said a little shocked and proud at his shot, Sarah said she might regret giving him a pin but she was wrong he was good. Alistar turned and faced Seth asking "What's the poundage on the pull of this trigger?" as he unloaded the rifle Seth looked at him and thought to him self for a second "Its three maybe four pounds" "Ok can I get it raised to about eight maybe seven and a half?" He asked and Seth replied "Sure follow me and we can tweak it a little" Gates watched as the two of them worked on the rifle and talked, finaly Alistar and Seth walked back out to the desk where Gates was waiting "Thank you for the weapon Mr. Rogen" Alistar said shaking Seth's hand "Oh no problem it was nice talking to somebody who knows there firearms, when you get back come by and I'll help you with those modifications you talked about" "I will" With that Gates and Alistar walked away going to there dropship after walking a ways Gates asked "What mods did you want to add?" "Well its mostly changing the exterior housing so it can match what the rest of my gear dose and a few things else" He replied, she took a look at it now and the two of them had changed more than the trigger pull weight now there was a sling on it and a pouch at the stock with a spare mag in it and four bullets on the outside she laughed to herself at the little personal touch he already added. Once they got to the dropship they loaded up and waited for the pilot to take off, they all had there own way of prepping for the mission Bear was quite checking his gear one more time, Gates flipped her radio over to the pilots channel and listened to them get ready for takeoff Alistar was humming to himself a tune Gates didn't know but it seamed fairly upbeat and he was enjoying himself finaly the clearance came down and the ship shuddered into life lifting off the ground and began climbing, Gates gripped the handle remembering that she didn't like flying into a combat zone the idea of her life and the life of everybody on board in the hands of the pilot never sat well with her.

* * *

They were put down first letting them get into position before Bear made entry on the compound, Alistar had found two rocks to set up between a taller one he could lean against and a shorter one he setup the Kraber on. Taking aim on the compound he said "Bear I've got good lines of sight all around outside and some inside" He could see Bear and his team taking cover behind a low wall "Good to know we'll move in now and hit the power station" "Wait one there's a sentry above you in the tower move on my mark" "Understood" a few seconds passed "Mark" "Moving" Bear and his team started moving towards the power station with Alistar guiding them. After a minuet or two Bears team made it to the power station "In position setting demo now" Bear radioed once they all entered the building "Demos in place were moving to the research center" "Understood Bear your clear all the way for now" Alistar watched as they ran from the cover of one building to the next and stacked up on the door of the research center and he heard Bear on the comms "Breach on my mark then blow the power" Alistar checked all the sentries and they were in places that wouldn't interfere with Bears team "Three….Two….One BREACH!" He couldn't hear the breach but he heard the power station and saw it crumble into a large pile of ruble. The guards scrambled trying to figurer out what happened "Gates there is nobody here" Bear said and Alistar looked at her since he couldn't see in there "What?" "The buildings empty there's nobody here" "Then work your way to the command building" "Understood" He sighted up again and watched Bear and team one move to the building, they kicked the door in and moved from room to room he had a good view as the building had big bay windows on the side facing him. Bear called on the comms again "Commander we found the officer in charge but he has a hostage we have no shot" Gates turned to Alistar who was already looking at the man hiding behind a young girl sixteen seventeen maybe "Bear can you guide him South three or four feet" He said reaching up and turning a dial on the scope, Bear said nothing but the troops inside shifted herding the man to where Alistar asked. "Ok hold him there" He said and started to inhale, a few seconds later Gates heard him hold his breath and then the sound of the Kraber discharging "Hostile down civilian secured" "Affirmative Bear, you have incoming North East side two squads" "Take up positions" Then another discharge of the Kraber and another. They continued like this for serval minuets with Gates calling targets and Alistar dropping them and Bear and his team holding the room. After fifteen minuets or so Bear said "Clear, can you confirm?" Alistar looked over the compound and began saying "Affirmative no contacts, wait I've got drop pods coming in with possible titans as well" Alistar stood up and switched channels "Requesting titan fall on the town South side of the command building, confirmed standing by" He began running down the ridge to get to the town Gates following behind him, as they ran she asked "Why drop your titan now and not when you get there?" Alistar didn't miss a beat and said "He's smarter than the titans your used to he can help hold off the enemy titans until I get there" After serval minuets of running they entered the town Gates made a beeline for the rest of the 64 wile Alistar ran for Storm. "Storm coming up behind you" He said as he got closer, Storm turned and opened the cockpit at the same time Alistar jumped in and not missing a beat they took on the Ronin titan in front of them, the Ronin charged forward sword in hand and swung it over its head trying to bring it down on there head but Alistar moved there arm hitting the flat of the blade with there hand sending the sword into the building next to them. Now the Ronin had two choices leave the sword in the building and try a brawl or try and pull the sword out of the wall he tried that putting one of his feet on the wall and starting to pull, Alistar lunged forward sending there fist into the primary ocular unit on the front of the cockpit crushing it and denting the door so bad that wouldn't open grabbing the Ronin at the waist and pulling he ripped off one of its legs and most of the hip the Ronin now on the ground he lifted there leg and stomped the cockpit crushing the reactor destroying it. Looking up he could see a Ion and a Scorch at the end of the road, the Ion moved to its left and took cover behind a building the Scorch charged forward lunching a incendiary trap canister Alistar leaned forward and caught the canister throwing it back at the Scorch at the same time al it fired its T-203 Thermite Launcher the canister burst into flames that landed on the Scorch melting it down at a frightening pace. The Ion rounded the corner firing as it came Alistar pulled out his XO-16 and returned fire catching it across its eye and left arm making it lose its aim for a moment, he took the opportunity and grabbed the Ion's arm and pulled it off nocking it to the ground tossing the arm away he landed on top of the titan trying to punch the cockpit open but the Ion kicked him off and got up and went back around the corner. Alistar picked himself up and followed, rounding the corner he saw the pilot out of his titan trying to remove the data core with one arm he wondered why then remembered that they had been linked when he pulled it off so his arm wouldn't wake up for another minuet or so. He looked at the man trying to save his titan and felt pity, he had taken off his helmet its sparking remnants sitting on the ground and he could see the desperation on his face as he tried to save his friend he disembarked and stood next to the man for a second before reaching up and helping him remove the data core. He looked confused as he clutched the core tightly in his right hand Alistar pointed at the command building where the 64 was holding up and the man understood and began walking. They walked in and he asked Bear to look after the man and to leave him alone mostly, after that he asked "Where's Gates?" 'Well she's ov-" Bear started but was cut off by an expulsion as a AT missile hit the wall five feet from where Gates was standing. Alistar ran over with Bear to see if she survived, she was half buried under ruble and they had to dig her out. Once she was out Alistar and Bear checked her wounds she had caught some shrapnel in her left shoulder and some more in her left thigh "Bear I've got this go make sure they don't hit us again with that" He nodded and joined the others "Gates can you hear me?" He asked removing her helmet "Um. Ya. I. Can. What?" He began to bandage her shoulder "Hey stay with me, What's your name?" He asked trying to keep her conscious "It's a, it's a Elizabeth Gates" "Ok Elizabeth, what do your friends call you?" "Um they call me, is that my blood?" "Not now what do your friends call you?" he asked again "They call me El" "Ok El you'll be fine ok just stay awake and talking ok, Bear call a medivac!" She stayed awake until the dropship arrived once onboard she started falling asleep Alistar went with her trying to keep her stable until they made it back to Harmony "Come on El stay with me" He said as they started to jump "Don't let go"


	7. Chapter 7 And Repaet

Chapter 7: And Repeat

"Hold on dammit you need to stay awake you hear me?" Alistar said looking in her eyes continuing to check her "W-why?" Gates stammered trying to laydown "You have a concussion and if you go to sleep its only going to make what's wrong with you worse" He said pulling her back up this time hooking her into the seat she was in. She didn't say anything but nodded and it looked like she was trying to stay awake now "Pilot how long till we land!?" Alistar shouted up to the cockpit, the pilot shouted back "Ninety seconds" He held on to her tightly and kept her talking as they descended. The pilot dropped the ramp as he touched down and a medical team rushed in, Alistar quickly explained what happened as they walked to the infirmary and a nurse wrote it down as they went. Making it inside he saw that the doctor on duty was Sam Alistar called out "Sam! Need your help" He came running over but before they could get ready a rifleman came up to Alistar saying "Sir Commander Bear is requesting your presents at the forward command center the 64 has established in the town" Alistar turned to Sam and asked "Can you handle this?" Sam didn't pause "Ya I got this" "Take good care of her wile I'm gone" Alistar said as he left for the airfield Sam nodded and then went into the OR.

The dropship was filled with five other pilots along with Alistar dropped in above the town, circling the town turned FOB stopping at the south side near what looked like a gate in the wall around the town the waist door opened and they all jumped out falling twenty or thirty feet landing safely with help from there jumpkits. Alistar landed in front of Storm and looked up Storm looked down at him and said "Bear's this way" and started walking. Alistar followed Storm and asked "What's the situation?" "Better than before now that reinforcements have arrived, Bear can tell you more" Storm finished as they walked up to the building they were in before. He stepped up the ramp into the command center and saw Bear leaning over a man at a radio calling air support, walking over he heard that not many fighter craft could break through the IMC's own air defenses. Bear straitened up and looked at him "Good having you back, how's Gates?" Bear said shifting his weight "She'll be fine the docs can handle it we got her there fast enough" He replied "Good, I'm sure you can hear that we have no air cover so I need every body I can get my hands on to hold off the IMC" "What's the problem?" "Well the majority of the IMC's troops have pulled back and up to a ridge that leads up to the old ship but the big issue is the IMC is dropping auto titans in waves trying to out number us so I need you and a few other pilots to help take out these titans before they breach our perimeter. These titans aren't good by any means but there are a lot of them so I've called an old friend or two to help, The Last Resort faction they usually do extractor op's but I think that we can make an exception this time" "So just hold and don't die, think I can do that" "I hope your damn good at it the Militia dumped a lot a troops here to help and if you get overrun we're all doomed" "Got it, Storm and I will work North and help there anything else?" "No" With that Alistar left the building at a jog and mounted up in Storm and worked his way to the North end of town, arriving there he saw the five other pilots he jumped in with already in postion and waiting "Alright Storm you ready for a slog?" "Sure I wasn't doing anything important anyway" And with that he could hear the sound of titans beginning there drop from orbit "Here goes nothing"

Ducking under the rocket salvo fired at him and firing some rounds of his own he asked Storm "We've been at this for two days now haw many titans are they willing to lose before they stop?" Storm thought for a second and said "Intel says two enemy ships in orbit one too damaged from friendly ships to launch titans so one dropping them in so maybe another day or two before they run out of materials to build more titans" "At least I know how long we have to hold for" Alistar and the other five pilots continued killing titans as they came finaly the wave ended and it gave them a chance to rest. After the five minuets that was usual between waves they got ready to go but nothing happened for a minuet then two finaly the radio came to life in his ear "Ground troops this is MCS Rutledge both enemy ships are crippled and running no more IMC reinforcements will be landing" Alistar relaxed "Finaly I might be able to get some sleep" "A few hours would do you some good Al" Storm said "Ya, maybe Bear has some news on Gat-" And Alistar seized up and was only held in place by the cockpit controls. Storm took over control so his forty ton body didn't start thrashing around, and then checked on his pilot "Al are you ok?" No response, Storm checked through there neural link and what he found surprised him. Helping Alistar out of his seizure he came round "I really hate that" He said taking off his helmet to take a sip of water "These aren't seizures, there is somebody trying to hack your neural lace" Storm said sharing the surprise he had found "Well isn't that interesting" He said taking another sip of water, after a moment he said "I think its this Dr. Tanoge I saw more of him this time, maybe this hack he's doing is going both ways which would explain why I see him" "Most likely, but I think we should get back to Bear and see what happens next" Storm said giving control back to him "Agreed, and some sleep I have a headache now" With that Alistar and Storm returned to camp and rested.

Alistar stepped into the command center and could see Bear and another man standing over a table with a map on it discussing something he couldn't hear, he started to walk over and could hear what they were saying as he got closer "We made it no more then five or six hundred feet once we crested the ridge" Said the man and Alistar looked at him seeing that he was a Captain in the rifleman corr of the Militia "We had to try getting the IMC off that ridge they have a range advantage on us with there artillery, ah Cambel good to see you've decided to start working again" Bear said taking notice of him as he walked up "Cambel this is Captain Emmerson of the fifth assault group, Captain this is Alistar Cambel" Bear introduced them and they shook hands "I agree with you it was worth the try but there were to many IMC and they dug in to deep for the troops we had" Emmerson said pointing at the map showing the line drawn a little ways from the ridge line "I take it you tried to push the IMC back away from the ridge" Alistar asked wondering what had happened wile he was asleep. Emmerson looked back at the map and said "Yes we did we tried to push them off of there artillery here and here" He pointed to two spots on the map "But the defenses they have are too much and to well entrenched, they even have counter attack troops it's a perfect defensive line. They hit us so hard we pulled out as fast as possible and we have to many MIA, some of our medics said they could hear men calling for help but we had to leave" Alistar stood silent for several seconds before turning around and walking out, Bear looked at the Captain and then followed. Bear caught up with him in the medical tent and could see him taking off his spare mags for his rifle and placing them in a sack with his rifle and a few other things he had on his tacvest. "What are you doing?" Bear asked walking up next to him "I don't think you'll like the answer" He replied grabbing several combat medic bags off of the wall and began attaching them to his gear "You're right I don't and let me guess you're going alone?" Bear said handing him a bag "Ya I don't want to ask anybody to risk that much" "But you are totally fine doing it your self!" "I know the risks, not saying that the others don't but they're needed here I'm expendable" "No your not you know as well as I-" "But I am, I've got no defined loyalty's not yet and if I go down its not as big a deal as if a full Militia pilot goes. I'm a no lose bet right now, Bear just let me go" "Are you doing this to prove a point because if so Gates will kick your ass and I'll help her" "No not really, I've been left behind myself and if I can save these men I'll do all I can and if doing that helps the higher ups decide if I'm trustworthy then so be it" "Fine I see that I can't convince you otherwise, you know from what I've read on you and what you've told me you're a little messed up" "Well there's the understatement of the decade. Bear have medical teams on standby at the bottom of the ridge" "Sure I'll do that, anything else?" "How's Gates?" "She's out of surgery and she will be fine in a month or two" "Thanks again Bear" "No problem, hey don't die eh" "I would prefer that" And with that he took off toward the base of the ridge.

She was going to go insane laying here day in and day out, its been five days since Alistar brought her back to Harmony to help save her but Bear had asked him to go back. The infirmary was a bit fuller now than three days ago and she was wondering how the fight was going, she looked over to her left seeing a rifleman next to her he was awake and she asked him "Hey rifleman what happened back there?" The man turned his head to look at her then said "Well after Commander Gates was hit the IMC started sending waves of auto titans to get rid of us wile there troops dug in on the ridge North of town, I heard that five pilots from The Last Resort and that one pilot that the commander brought held them off for two days until the Rutledge drove off the enemy ships" The man didn't seam to know who he was talking to, one of the advantages of wearing a helmet all the time "Then what happened after the ships left?" She asked wondering how Bear and Alistar were doing "Well after the titans stopped the Captain of my unit and Bear decided that the IMC couldn't hold the ridge and use the better artillery postion over us, so we went up the cliff to take the ridge it was a disaster we barely made it the six hundred feet that we did and for a day and a half we tried to hold what little ground we had. After that day and a half in hell the Captain began to pull off the ridge I got hit on the way to the rope ladder and couldn't make it, the medics were busy with other men and I and some others got left behind" Gates was stunned at how bad it had gotten since she left, then a new question came to her "How did you get out? Did they take the ridge?" The man seamed to come alive as he began "No we didn't that pilot that the commander brought came up the cliff after hearing that some of us were still up there wounded. He went around helping all that he could, he would find one of us patch us up and move us to the cliff then lower us down to waiting med teams, he did that for three days last I know he is still up there. He found me this morning saved my life." "Thanks" Was all she said as she processed all the information she had just gotten, she called for an orderly and asked for a commanders pad to over see the battle reports as they came in to see haw things were going now. It took another day to track down a commanders pad for her to look at, most of the reports were Bear's and they were just what she was looking for '18:00 hours Pilots from The Last Resort and Pilot Cambel have successfully defended the town with 450 out of 1500 titans dropped confirmed killed by Last Resort Pilots the remaining titan kills going to Pilot Cambel' She scrolled through the next reports of wounded and then the failed attempt to take the ridge and then the report of the wounded from the ridge '15:00 hours new count of wounded from the push on the ridge reaches 500 out of two divisions of 1700 each, 358 of these were recovered over the last three days by Pilot Cambel who went up the cliff on a lone op to recover these lost men' There was one more report that was only fifteen minuets old '13:00 hours we pushed up the ridge again and with help from Pilot Cambel we found several tunnels that the IMC were using to move troops, he had discovered these tunnels over the curse of the three days he spent recovering the wounded. Additionally Pilot Cambel held off two of some new IMC unit a titan assault teams consisting of eight titans and four teams of Stalkers armed with anti titan weapons for ten minuets wile we planted charges on the IMC artillery giving us the chance needed to save the op. In conclusion I can confirm the IMC Odyssey an surrounding territory is back in Militia control and I would back any move to adopt Pilot Cambel into any branch of the Militia once he has finneshed recovering' Gates let the pad drop to her lap shocked at the amount that he had done just to help. As she sat there she heard over the PA 'Group one cleared to land' She looked out the window of the infirmary to the landing strip to see a multitude of ships landing, one of the ships she knew as the 64's and wile she looked at it she saw Bear and Alistar walk out and begin heading to the base. After a few minuets they walked in and started her way she waved them on and they made it over "So still in one piece?" Bear asked "For now and no thanks to the stubborn hero here" She said tossing a pillow at Alistar, he caught it and tossed it back saying "I'm no hero" "Really? Because there are some in her that would disagree" She replied gesturing around, he said nothing and continued to stand at the foot of her bed with Bear "Well I've got work to do since you seam to have found a way to pass it off" Bear said starting to walk off "You could use the practice" She called after him and Alistar chuckled to himself. They sat there for a minuet not saying anything, they Gates said "I see what you mean I can't tell what you are thinking with your helmet on" He smirked and pulled his helmet off and moved to sit in the chair next to her like she had for him. "Better?" He asked sitting down "Much" "I've seen your medical reports your doing well another week maybe week and a half bed rest then light duty" "Two days ago I wouldn't like hearing that, but now" "Now you don't mind" "Yes" "Well Bear and the rest of the 64 are back so you don't have to worry" "You left your self out of the that some how, your part of the 64 remember" "I didn't want to get you in trouble for saying some thing wrong that's all" "No your fine, the 64 may be part of the Militia but personnel choices are mine" "I see" He said looking down at his helmet, after a moment Gates began to say something stopped then started again "Alistar about my condition when you brought me here" "What? Your doing better what's wrong?" His voice both comforting and worried "Well its actually about my name, you see nobody really knows my first name and-" "Oh, um I sorry I didn't mean-" "No its ok, I just wanted to tell you so that some thing didn't happen" "Ok I see, if you don't mind me asking what things?" "Not now, not here" "That's fine" Another pause but this time they both just sat looking at each other, after a wile Alistar said "I think we've both saved each others life now" "Oh really, when did I save yours?" "Well you could pick one of two when you found me you stopped the IMC from using me as a machine of war, or when you held me down during my first seizure" "Ya I guess those count, wait first? You've had others?" "Just one, it was after we held off the titans in the town. Storm found out they aren't actually seizures its somebody trying to hack into the computer in my brain" "You should tell-" "Tell who? Nobody could help" "I see your point" She looked down at the sheets on her bed and was silent for a wile. "When was the last time you got some sleep?" She asked remembering Bear's report "I think it was four days ago" He said after a moment "Well you should get some then" "As you wish" He said with a slight bow as he stood and started to walk out "Alistar" "Yes Elizabeth" His use of her first name surprised her "Come visit me again it gets boring in here" "I will" He said and walked away.


	8. Chapter 8 Some Things Lost

Chapter 8: Some things Lost

'No don't just say it, you need to mean it or the rest of us won't trust you' Alistar rolled over and kept shifting wile he slept 'Trust? Trust? You want me to earn their trust? How about you all earn mine first, because sim or not abandoning me for the sake of the op is not doing you any good' "Al are you ok?" 'Ya it hurts when your own argument comes back and bites you doesn't it. Trust ha, you should know better than to look for trust in this place there is even less trust here than in the original Olympus' "ALISTAR!" "WHAT?" He almost screamed as he sat up "You were having one of your dreams" Storm said in his head "Uh I was?" "Are you ok? You haven't had one in some time" He swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat with his head in his hands "I'm good. But I don't know why I had that, what time is it?" "03:22 you have gotten four and a half hours of sleep" "Wow that many" He said as he stood and moved over to his locker "What are you going to do?" Storm asked "The same as I did before run" He replied pulling on his PT clothes "Run to clear you're head? Or to run away?" Storm asked a slight tone of disappointment in his voice "A little of both for now" Alistar said tying his shoes "What do you think Gates would think of that?" "I don't know Storm, I've never worked with someone who has that good of a moral compass before and you know that" "Maybe you should talk to her" "I will when she wakes up, remember its to early for most things" "Ya just don't do anything stupid in the mean time 'Alistar'." He said the name with venom and it cut deep "DON'T DO THAT! You know better than to go there" Storm said nothing and Alistar walked out heading to the airfield.

She was doing better at least that's what the doctor said, she could get up and walk a little now and it didn't hurt as much. But that was not the case for the man three beds to her right, unconscious since he got here six days ago he tossed around in his sleep constantly and the doctors say he is on borrowed time. As she looked at him a nurse went to him and changed his bandage, as the nurse finneshed the man woke up and started yelling and screaming thing that Gates couldn't make out at first. Some doctors ran over and tried to hold him down so he didn't rip out his stitches and Gates finaly got what he was saying, he thaught he had been taken prisoner and wouldn't listen to reason then he wanted prof that he was home and his request of prof shocked Gates. "IF I'M NOT A PRISONER SHOW ME PILOT CAMBEL!" One of the orderly's ran off to find him and a few minuets latter he ran in with the orderly and went to the man saying "Hey there what's all the noise about?" The man instantly relaxed and said "Sir you're real thank god" "As real as it gets, how are you doing George?" The fact that he remembered his name further helped him calm down "Better now that I know I'm home" With that the doctors and other medical staff went back to what they were doing "Excuse me Sir-" "The names Alistar" "Alistar, you know I was my squads medic I know what that monitor says. How long do I have?" Alistar looked him in the eye "Not long" George leaned back in his pillow then started coughing and hacking and Alistar helped him get comfortable again after "Alistar, w-would you stay with me till I-" He started coughing again, when he finneshed he lifted his hand and Alistar grabbed it raping their thumbs around and fingers on the back of the others hand "Ya I'll stay George" "Thank you Sir" They sat there like that for a few hours until George's hand went slack and he coughed a couple more times then he went silent one final time. Gates got up and limped over and stood next to Alistar, after a wile she asked "What happened to him?" Alistar laid George's hand on his chest and said "He was working on bringing one of his squad mates back when an artillery shell landed five feet in front of him it was a delayed fuse shell, he had enough time to turn and see the shell before it exploded. It killed the man he was evacing and almost tore him in half ripping out most of his intestines, I found him on the first night two hours after I don't know how he was alive. As I tried to get him to the cliff too get him out he told me his name and what happened, it was like when you were hit I was just trying to keep him awake." He stood up and pulled the sheet up over George's head and turned to look at Gates "Come on" He said and helped her back to bed. "Al" "Yes El" "You said once that you were no hero, but you do so many-" "To be a hero you need to be a good person from the start, I'm just paying off a debt I owe" "A debt?" "Project Olympus tried to make better soldiers, what it made instead was fifty one monsters" "Why monsters?" "We did things that I'd not want tell you about because they still affect the world in bad ways. But I will say this, when they take you at sixteen to train you, you never have a chance to be human" "I think you're human" "If you knew some of things that were done you wouldn't question me, and you would ask me to prove that I'm human" "But why did you have to prove it?" "People at a young age even at sixteen are verry moldable and when you make a child train to kill and then kill they have to grow up fast, but with no help they fail to grow up they become twisted and corrupt they, we became monsters" "I'm sorry" "Why? You didn't do it to me, why be sorry?" "I- well I just feel bad for you" "You don't have to. Its my past and I will deal with it, the echoes and dreams are a good reminder of what matters" With that he let her rest and went to check on Storm. "But I do" She said to herself as he walked out.

"Storm you're not listing to anything I'm saying" Alistar sat and argued with Storm in the titan hanger "No I think you're not listing, you have a chance for more than you had last time don't screw this up" "A chance for what exactly?" "A chance to have a family friends everything you couldn't have in Olympus, a chance to be you not this name you've put to the face they gave you" "What do you think will happen when they find out, it won't be all happy and ok its going to be a mess and I don't want to lose my second chance" "I think Gates will trust you, she seams to trust you more than she really should" "You should stop implying that there is anything between me and Elizabeth" "Oh it's a first name bases now?" "You can't tell anyone her name ok" "Why?" "I don't know yet she asked my not to spread it around and I'm not going to, and neither are you" "No I won't, I see you take her trust verry seriously" "She's the first person to give me their trust in some time you know that" "Well I think its well founded" "Really? Not misplaced in any way, I mean with all the secrets and redirections about Olympus" "When you put it that way, but I think you will tell her at some point. But sooner rather than later" "Maybe so, Storm I don't know how to feel abou-" Alistar stopped and seized up going stiff, then fell to the ground and started convulsing "MEDIC WE NEED A MEDIC HERE!" Storm shouted out and checked Alistar and see if he could help. Just like before it was a hack at his neural lace but with the two of not linked he couldn't do anything. 'And just like that I have all the secrets of project Olympus, I told you I could do it Jones' Alistar laid there twitching and rolling and amidst this he got out "N-no d-don't ta-ake my-" And then he passed out. Lights flashes pain and loss, that's all he could sense in the haze he was in, finaly it settled on pain and lots of it with all kinds from headaches to joint pain every fiber of his being hurt and it wouldn't stop. Then all at once it did and with the pain left something else something he couldn't understand not yet and he finaly passed out completely. He came to in almost complete darkness save for one light at a desk he knew but didn't know and it felt strange to know something and not know it, then it hit him some of his memories were no longer there. He sat up in a panic and a nurse came over to see if he was ok he drifted through their conversation and heard the name Gates that was a name he knew, it was all so surreal he could remember his childhood and resent events but nothing passed the day of his sixteenth birthday until Gates found him. A few minuets passed and then a woman in armor walked in and thanked the nurse then walked over to him and sat down "Are you ok?" She asked. It was Gates he recognized her voice "Yes and no" He said "What do you mean yes and no?" "Well I'm ok but I, I can't remember some things" She sat there for a second and then removed her helmet "Alistar are you ok?" She asked again but with a different kind of worry in her voice and reached up and grabbed his arm "I don't know, I- I feel lost in my own head and I can't find something and its really important" As he spoke she moved her hand to his and held it tightly. He held it back grateful for any thing he could say he knew "Gates I-" "Its Elizabeth and you know that" She said trying to help "El I, I do remember you don't worry I just I'm not sure about some things" "That's ok" And she reached up her other hand to hold his "Are you ok El?" "Not really Al" "How long have I been out?" "You went down a week ago" "Oh" "Do you need me to do anything?" "Um what time is it?" "Its 02:50" "Thanks, uh could- could you stay with me tonight? I'd like to have somebody I know close" "Sure Al I'll stay" She said and shifted her chair to make it easier to sit next to him "Thanks El it means a lot" He said relief in his voice "No problem Al" She replied and leaned against his bed still holding his hand with him holding just as tight, as she sat there she let out a tear or two at the sight of him just trying to make sense of something he knew so well before.

"I am pushing the red button" Alistar said angrily pressing the button repeatedly and Storm saying "Don't break it" And moved closer to see what he was doing wrong. Gates sat watching as Storm tried to reteach Alistar some thing, he seamed determined to makeup his loss and be 'useful' as he put it he said that he didn't want to be a burden. As Gates sat and watched Sarah Briggs walked up next to her "How's he doing?" She asked "Better, he is trying to relearn all of his skills right now" Gates replied continuing to watch "It seams he has a lot to go still" Sarah said "Well from what I understand Project Olympus took up over half of his life and to just lose that over night, it would be hard on anyone. The psychologist says it's a miracle that he is up and going as fast as he has, they said that if it was all of his memories it would be a little easer but it just being some well it's harder" Gates repeated what she had been told earlier and Sarah stood in silence with her for a wile. After a few minuets Bear walked passed and over to Alistar, Gates got up and wandered over to see what Bear was doing. "He asked me to help him relearn hand to hand since Storm can't" Was Bear's reply when she asked "Oh ok, well don't break anything on him" Gates said and sat down a little closer to watch. Alistar had his armor on and was in the middle of a square of crates that Storm had setup and Bear joined him in there. They both took a ready stance and Bear's was a little more well done then Alistar's, and they began with Alistar running forward swing his right fist at Bear's head Bear ducked and grabbed his arm as it passed over twisting his wrist making him drop to his knees then Bear kicked him in the back laying him flat and after a few seconds Alistar got up and they started again, and again for the next few minuets. After ten minuets or so Gates stood up to tell them to stop and give Al a chance to recover from the bruises that Bear had given him when Bear started the fight this time by swinging his left fist at Al's head, Alistar ducked under and landed a quick one two in Bear's ribs nocking the breath out of him and Bear stepped back a few paces. Alistar seaming to have found some muscle memory closed the gap arms tuck in close and jabbed his left at Bear's head, Bear managed to duck in time still recovering from his first hit and Alistar took advantage of this by bringing his knee up into Bear's faceplate on his helmet knocking him back into the crates. Bear got his balance back and came at Alistar with his right fist this time and Al stopped it with his left and head butted him making Bear take a stutter step, Al moved closer and began a move Gates hadn't seen before. He started by hitting Bear in his left shoulder with his right fist followed up with a hit mid rib with his left and another on Bear's left hip again with his right fist, Bear was off balance again and Al continued by kicking Bear's right shin making his leg go almost flying out behind him forcing him to a knee and then Alistar brought his knee up into Bear's Head launching him backwards into a crate and from the lack of movement knocked him out completely. Al stood and looked at his hands in shock and then went to Bear who was starting to move "Are you ok?" Alistar asked checking the status panel on Bear's armor "Ya I'm good, it seams you know more than you think" Bear replied and started to chuckle but decided against it because of the pain it caused "What the hell was that?!" Sarah asked stunned looking at the two of them "I don't know really" Al said helping Bear to his feet "And don't ask me because I have no clue" Bear said trying to take a couple of deep breaths. Gates stepped forward and said "The both of you go to the infirmary and get checked out" They both saluted and began walking "Told you he was worth the pin" Gates said to Sarah as she walked after them.


	9. Chapter 9 A Drink and a Plan

Chapter 9: A Drink and a Plan

"And you two say that this happened wile you were training?" The nurse questioned Alistar and Bear as she treated them "Um, yes. Ah" Bear said slowly as she set his broken nose "Well injuries like this don't happen in a sim pod" She said cynically, tightly raping a bandage around Alistar's ribs. He winced at the pressure on his bruised ribs but held as still as he could "To be fair we weren't in a sim pod" He said when she finneshed "Not in a sim pod? I should report the both of you for unsafe training" She replied reaching for a data pad, but before she did they heard "I'll take care of that" It was Gates walking in her usual armor and helmet on "After all they are my pilots" "Uh yes ma'am" The nurse said and walked away. The three of them watched as she did then Gates turned to look at them "Reported for unsafe training" Gates repeated and a second later they all were laughing at the ridiculous idea of the two of them in the brig. Alistar had to stop on account of his ribs giving him grief for the effort "You two are something else" Gates said when she stopped laughing "Oh no here comes that nurse again" Bear said and Alistar turned to see the nurse and a doctor heading over "That sounds like a you problem" Alistar said standing up "What do you mean a you problem?" Bear asked "You're breathing is going to have to be monitored for the next few hours" "What about you then?" "I wasn't punched in the ribs and broke their nose" "You're a real pal, you know that" "Glad to be appreciated" Alistar said bowing slightly as he walked out. Gates chuckled to her self, patted Bear on the arm knowing he would be ok and headed after Alistar to make sure he didn't get in any more trouble. "You know he doesn't like sitting in hospitals" She said when she caught up to him "Nobody dose" He said a smile on his face "So what are you going to do now?" She asked lowering her tone "I don't know, maybe I'll go get some ice cream" He replied off handedly "That's not what I meant and you know it" She said giving him a light punch on the shoulder "Ah, careful I'm injured remember" He acted pained at the impact "Oh the poor injured pilot" She said sarcastically "Perhaps I should check your bio monitor" She continued and he smiled for a second then went serious "I don't know if it could tell you what's wrong" "I don't know if it could, but I think getting out with people you know would help" As she said this she moved a little closer to get a better gage on his reaction. He took a deep breath as he walked saying "I don't know, maybe you're right El maybe a familiar face would help but all the people that I might recognize are gone" "Well I'm here if you need me" She said "I know and I intend to make use of as much of your time as I can. You and Bear are the only friends I have right now, but I think I can make another" "What do you mean?" "I believe that Barker promised me a drink"

Alistar stepped in the door and blinked a couple of times trying to adjust his eyes to the inside of the bar where he was told Barker would be. He took a few steps further in and could see the bar was in a U shape in the center of the room and against one wall with booths around the edges and some tables on the floor and some space to dance. The bar was empty except for Barker sitting at the bar and the bartender "About time you came by" Barker said when he saw Alistar in the door way "I figured I could use that drink now" Alistar replied walking up and sitting next to Barker "I think you could use a bit more than one" He replied as the bartender pored Alistar a glass "I would not argue with you there" Al said grabbing his glass and they both took a drink. Al set his drink down and exhaled slowly as the burning feeling moved down his throat and settled in his lower chest "You good?" Barker asked upon seeing his reaction "I'm good just out of practice" He said and took another drink but this time a little smaller "You know its kind of funny what you're doing" Barker said taking a drink of his own "In what way?" "Most people drink to forget or to dull the pain you, well you are already there" "You have a point, but I don't think anybody wants to forget this bad" "Well you're right but people get that drinking to forget thing wrong all the time. You drink to lesson the pain for a little bit just to stop hurting long enough to feel some thing else not to lose it all completely" "You sound like one who has tried" "And failed, though I didn't think it was possible to completely forget something" "Its not, not technically any way" "Really?" "Ya its on account that as you learn something it makes new neural path ways in your brain and the only way to really forget something is if those pathways are destroyed or that a block is placed on that path. I think that's one of the reasons why I have a computer in my head is so that I couldn't place a block" "That you couldn't place a block?" "Yes with like severe trauma or shock, nothing I could do willingly or unwillingly could block anything it would have to come from an external source" Alistar trailed off with those last words and stared into this glass. "Oh I get what you are saying I- You have an idea don't you?" "I, think I do, thanks for the drink" Al said quickly as he rushed out "You're welcome" Barker said to no one.

"Why are we here again?" Sarah asked as the three of them sat in the command room "I don't know Alistar said he wanted to talk to the three of us" Gates replied from the chair she was sitting in "Well I don't mind sitting here a little just to see what he has to say" Barker said "Yes but you probably don't have anything better to do" Sarah almost snapped back as she leaned on the holo table. It was a few minuets later that Alistar walked in and said "Sorry that took so long my tests went longer than I thaught they would" "What tests?" Gates asked since she had been keeping a close eye on his medical reports "I was doing some special tests with Storm on an idea I got from talking to Barker" He said and placed a small computer on the table and plugged it in "An idea from Barker, well it can't be that good of an idea" Gates said teasing Barker and Barker stood up saying "I never clamed that any of my ideas were good just useful" "What is this idea to begin with" Sarah asked "Well to put it simply, I know how to get my memories back and figure out what this Dr. Tanoge is doing" This peaked Sarah's interest "How would you do that?" She asked "The loss of my memories is not natural, it's from an external source someone hacking into my neural lace. That someone is Dr. Tanoge, Storm and I did some testing to check this and the loss of my memories is an external block on those memories by someone trying accessing them" Alistar said typing on his computer "I see" Sarah said and let Alistar continue "I checked the SRS file on the good doctor and it says he is looking into human enhancement to make the few IMC troops here more effective. And my guess is that he thinks that the secrets of Project Olympus are his ticket, he hoped to learn this when I arrived in the frontier and get me to help him but to his great disappointment Commander Gates decided to take me for the Militia instead" Barker stepped forward and said "Well that explains a lot but how are you going to fix all this?" "Like this" Al said and projected an image to the holo table "When the doctor took my memories by accessing my mind he didn't realize that the data went both ways and I know were he is located. He is here a planet in the Setter system, Setter III to be precise. Now the intel we have on Setter III is less than useable but I did find out that there is only one city on the planet and it has a technical research center run by Hammond so technically it's not military, my plan was to get to Setter III and get a job at the center and work my way into Dr. Tanoge's inner circle and try to remove the block on my memories and shutdown his research." Barker looked at the holo of Setter III and asked "When you shutdown his research what happens to him?" "Well I was planning on killing him" Alistar said "What is preventing Dr. Tanoge from recognizing you?" Sarah asked looking at him and hoping he had an answer "He won't be able to all of the memories he took are mine so they are through my eyes never getting a good look at my face I think" Was his answer "Still it would be nice to give you any help we can" Barker said looking at his own data pad. Gates stood up from her chair and stepped up to the table and said "We can I go with him, if we go together it will help him gain the trust of the others working with him if he has more of a home life to talk about and proof to back it up. Plus Dr. Tanoge won't be looking for a couple he will be expecting just him" Alistar looked over at her and said "You have a good eye for this undercover stuff" She smiled under her helmet and shifted her stance "I have a question, how do you know how to do this stuff?" Barker asked "Well it seams that I had the brains to make backups of some of the info I had in my head that I deemed necessary to survive and Storm held on to it form me" He replied. They sat and discussed the details of how the two of them would get there and what they would do to get in contact if needed and with the kinks ironed out they agreed on the plan "So that is it Gates and Cambel will set out for Setter III tomorrow under the last name of Jackson and try to get in to Dr. Tanoge's facility to fix a few problems, did I miss any thing?" Sarah said and Barker spoke up saying "You did" She looked at him "What?" "That I can go now and get some food" He said standing and she got annoyed throwing a pen at him and Barker docked under it and turned to say something but was cut off by Alistar "I think you should go before she throws a grenade at you" He smiled and walked out. Gates started out saying that she had to tell Bear that he would be in charge of the 64 for a wile.

Alistar laid on a hill just outside the base looking at the moon rising in the sky, it was big and glowing a orange red kind of color, the breeze blew through his cloths and hair and he could feel the grass under him move as he shifted from lying down to sitting up and continued to watch. After a minuet or two he could hear someone walking up the hill to him "Shouldn't you be getting some sleep?" Gates asked walking up and sitting down next to him "I'm having trouble doing that anymore" He said not looking away "Are you stressing out over this?" She asked looking at him "No, ever since the block was placed on my memories I get bits and pieces of them in dreams as my brain is trying to regain control and it can be a little rough" "Oh, how long-" "Until I remember I think" "So apart from not being able to sleep why are you out here?" "I wanted to get away for a little bit" "And just stair at the moon?" "Ya, when I was younger I wanted to go to space and return to the moon. Now that sounds ridicules today but then as a little boy on Earth looking up and seeing a place that at the time a verry short list of people had been to and it had been sevral decades as well, the dreams of small minds can give hope I guess is what I'm getting at." "You've never talked like this before" "There is an answer to that and it is that right now I can't remember most of my adult life and those small dreams are the biggest part right now so I feel a little lost" "Oh. I have only heard stories about Earth is it as good as they say?" "I've heard some of those stories from some of the rifleman since I got here and it's a little better, in my opinion" "I wish I could see it, I know it sounds silly but it is one of the things I want to do" "I don't think it sounds silly" He said finaly looking away from the moon and looking at her "After all I still want to be an Astronaut it doesn't sound that ridicules" She laughed at the comment and he could see the joy in her face from the crinkles next to her eyes to the corners of her mouth lifting as she smiled. "I'm going to enjoy this assignment" He said as she finneshed "Why?" She asked looking at him with a smile still on her face "It will give me a chance to see you're face more, it's a shame that you wear your helmet all the time" As he finneshed she lost her smile and looked away "Don't tell anyone please" She said looking at the grass between her feet "I wasn't going to, it seams that we all have our secrets" He replied reaching his arm around and giving her a one armed hug, she sat for a second then returned his hug "Thanks Al" "No problem El, one of these days I will have to ask you about your secret" "Well I-" "Not any time soon I think it would only be fair if I could return the favor when we get there" "Thanks again Al. I've just had a thaught" "What's that?" "You said when you got here that those mountains over there were the first you had seen since you went into cryo, do you remember being asleep that hole time?" "Yes and no, my neural lace recorded what was happening and some of that went with my other memories so yes and no" "Oh, do you miss your memories?" "Not really in the way you think" She looked at him and began to ask but he explained "I don't miss the memories them selves but what they told me about the people I met knew loved hated, the friends I had the good times and the bad all the things that made me what I am and all the choices I made that lead me here. I miss being me to be honest, now I don't know once I have those back if I'll stand by that statement or not but if the dreams I'm having are any clue it's a no but I'm willing to risk hatting myself to give you and the rest of the Militia an advantage" Elizabeth held her side of their hug a little tighter thanking him for him being willing to go and face his demons again instead of walking away like so many others would given his options, she knew now again he was worth the pin and maybe just knowing him would help her face her own demons maybe one day they could help each other.


	10. Chapter 10 The First Step

Sorry about the long break and the rest is coming but I thaught that you all would like a little bit to read for now

Chapter 10: The First Step

"Ahh that's bright" Al opened his eyes and shut them again at the white light all around him, he then tried again slower letting his eyes adjust to the light. He was in a white room with the ceiling, floor and all the walls producing the light that was still bright, Alistar looked around squinting taking in his surroundings there was nothing in the room with him and he walked up to one of the walls placing a hand on it. As he did he heard a noise behind him and he turned looking for the source asking "Who's there?" The words echoed in the room, which was a little surprising on acount of how small the room was. Slowly another figure came into focus "Al?" "Storm?" As the man stepped closer he could see a face he knew but couldn't place "Ya it's me" The man said "But how?" Al stood in shock as he looked at a human version of his titan "Give me a minuet to explain" Al was more than willing to listen to Storm's explanation as he had no idea what was going on "A little back story to help, When I was built and you where in training the nural link that modern pilots and titans use wasn't invented. So the creative people at Olympus used a different system, they implanted a small piece of a larger computer in your head as a nural lace connecting your brain to a computer based in a titan letting the pilot link to the titan when in it to control it. When not linked the pilots nural lace and the titans data core are quantum entangled to provide communication at any distance, now the instant comms this way get less and less instant the further apart the two get but there is another bonus. If both the pilot and titan focus on the link when their conscious they can enter this room." "So this room acts like a hub of sorts between us at any distant?" Al asked looking around once more "Yes" "Well is it always this-" "Horrible" "I was looking for a better word but ya" "No it's not, the pilot that's you has control over the look but since you memory loss this room has reset" "Oh well I'll work on changing it, you said when both are conscious how are we here now if I didn't remember?" "When you are unconscious I can pull you in here to check on you in emergences, or it lets us discuss things wile you let your body rest" "I glad you didn't just tell me about it but you showed it to me and I can imagine you would like me to give you updates with this wile I'm gone?" "That was the main idea" Storm said chuckling a little "It's a little weird seeing you like this, again now that I focus" As Al thaught harder and harder the room began to shake and the lights dimed "Careful Al, remember that this in our heads and with your problem trying to use this place to remember could cause one or both of us to die" Storm said to him shacking his shoulder a little to get him to stop "Sorry, I'll keep that in mind from now on" Al said watching the lights flash a few more times. "Storm how long have we been in here?" Al asked with a sudden thaught "Not that long and yes it can be what you are thinking, it also can speed up your view of time to help pass long times of doing nothing in addition to slowing it down" Storm said "Oh I just remembered that some computers proses data faster than the human brain so I wanted to ask you but you answered before I could ask" "It seems that some things are all ready coming back to you that is a good sign" The two of them stood there for a minuet or two saying nothing and after a wile Storm spoke up "You should return to normal sleep this place lets your body rest but it can put a strain on your brain" Alistar said nothing but nodded and let his focus slip and the room faded. 'What were you thinking?' 'He was slowing me down I couldn't do what you told me with him dragging himself around' 'That dosen't cut it we are a team and there is no "I" in team' 'No but there is a me and if I want to go anywhere in this program I need to look out for my self' 'But you abandoned him gut shot and shattered knee with a golf ball sized hole in his shoulder, how would you feel if your were in Alistar's place' 'I would feel-' 'The two of you shut it or continue it else where' 'Yes captain, will you require anything else sir' 'Kiss ass' 'Shut it Tom' 'Yes captain Alistar' 'I am fine Jack you and tom can go' 'Yes sir' 'Those two were no help I see' 'Neither are you Be-' "AAAAHH" Alistar sat up sharply in a cold sweat "Damn it, I hate these blasted drea-" 'won't trust you' Alistar grabbed his head with both hands "I need to solve this fast or my own past is going to kill me"

"I never knew that civilian transport could be so boring" Gates said trying unsuccessfully to not stair at the seat infront of her "Did I forget to mention that?" Alistar asked a little amused "It seems you did, now I haven't desided if it was on purpose or not" "Purely accidental I promise and El try not to sound so military you could say public transport" "Sorry its been I don't know how many years since I was a civilian" "Well when was the last time you didn't do any thing military" She stopped and thaught about it for a few seconds then said "I was fifteen my last summer before I went to a military academy to finish school" "I think I did something similar when I was sixteen" "You might have joined Olympus then" "Maybe, this is so weird I feel like a sixteen year old in a thirty five year old's body" "That make sence in a weird way, what happens when we get to the Setter systom again?" "I called ahead applying for a job opening in the lab that Dr. Tanoge works in. A Hammond shuttle will pick us up at the port at the end of this jump and take us to the Setter systom and dock at the orbital station where I will have the final interview and see if I get the job, then if I get the job they will take us planet side and set us up in on site housing and I get to work" "A lot of this plan depends on you getting that job" "True but I'm the only applicant and it is a critical postion and needs filling so my chances are high, plus I am technically over qualified for the postion and might even be offered a better job" "Makes sence when you put it that way" As she finneshed the ship decelerated and dropped out of the jump and a voice came over the intercom "Ladies and Gentlemen we have arrived in systom and will be docking at the Ortrevtian space port in five minuets please make sure you have all your luggage and other personal items with you when you debark the craft thank you for flying with us today and we hope you enjoy the rest of your trip" "Well that was interesting" Elizabeth said as she started to gather her things. The transport was mostly quite wile it docked at the space port finaly shuddering to a stop as it rested on the docking clamps and the door opened. Some people stood up and started to leave but the crew asked them to sit back down and wait just a few more minuets as two men in Hammond uniforms boarded and walked over to Alistar and Elizabeth "Mr. and Mrs. Jackson?" One of them asked looking at them "That's us" Al said and stood up "We are here to take you to the Setter systom" "Well thank you" Al said extending his hand to shake and the one man excepted "This way" He motioned and lead them off the transport as they walk off the transport El said to herself "Here goes nothing"

The world flew past as they drove to what would be the place they were going to be staying in for a wile or at least until Al got his memory back "Like the view?" the driver of the car asked her seeing her stair out the window "Yes I do" She said remembering the back story they had "It has been a wile since I've been off of an industrial world and seen a green world" "I hear you there I once worked at one of those places, they are necessary but my god they suck to live on" The driver said looking at her in his rear view mirror "You will like this place then lots of green" She laughed a little at the mans sence of humor. Alistar had been taken strait to the lab to be shown around and told what he would be doing and she was being taken to their house to get settled in. Her mind wandered as she watched the streets and houses go by eventually her thaughts were interrupted by the driver saying "Ah here we are" As he pulled into a drive way of the house. "There you go Mister Jackson that is the facility, what do you think?" The man showing Al around said "I'm impressed with it, especially with it being all the way out here" Al said not having to fake any of it "Yes it is quite the accomplishment, but now I think you would like to see your new house" "Yes I would like that" "Well then right this way" As the car pulled up to the house Al got a good look at the place it was a decent size building half of it was on the ground and the other half was a two part raised up part in the ground basement with a two car garage attached to the other side "Wow" Was all he could say "Damn right wow, its one of the best places here" The driver said "Your wife is all ready here Mr. Jackson will there be anything else that I can help you with?" "Uh, oh a no I'm fine thanks" Al said finaly as he closed the car door "Right then I'll leave you to it then" The driver said and got back in and pulled away. Al walked up to the one step porch stepped up and pushed the door open and looked in for a minuet just standing there, after a little bit Elizabeth walked into the entry way and looked at him "Are you ok?" She asked "Uh, I don't know" He said she had let her hair down and it hung lose around her face framing it adding to her natural beauty and it was longer than he thaught it would be "Its been a long time since I have lived in a normal house, I don't know what to do" She stepped closer stopping in the door frame and leaned on it "Me to, want to try?" "Yes I do" Memories played in his mind and for once they had nothing to do with Olympus they were the few memories he from before when he had a normal enough life mom, dad, sister. He stepped over the threshold and into the house with more memories coming happy one sad ones and old wants from before that day, that one day that was supposed to be a happy one but fate had other ideas. "Al?" "Yes El?" He said coming back to the here and now "Is it just me or dose this feel a little weird?" "In what way?" He asked stepping closer to her "I don't know" She said as she stopped leaning on the door frame and stood up strait "I can't really describe what" She looked him strait in the eyes searching for something but stopped and said "never mind don't worry about it" And walked back into the bedroom. They spent the rest of the day getting settled in and find a way for the two of them to live a non military life for the immediate future, after sevral hours and a meal Elizabeth said "We should get some sleep you have a big day tomorrow stating your search" "Yah go into the bed room I'll clean up my mess once I finnesh my last minuet study's" Al said looking up from the pile of papers and his data pad in front of him "Sure" She said and went in and got ready then went to bed.

"Not again" Al said sitting up on the couch as more dreams of lost memories came back he stood up and walked over to the sliding door that leads to the back porch and opened it and stepped out stopping at the railing and leaning on it. Normally he slept in his under armor an old habit from field work but now he just had some soft pants on and the cool night air chilled him a little. He stood there for a bit before "What are you doing out here?" El said from the door way wearing similar pants and a tank top "Couldn't sleep" "More dreams?" "Ya" "Can I ask you something?" "Sure" "Why are you sleeping on the couch?" "I didn't want to, well I- You know all my answers sound kind of stupid now" "You didn't want to be rude? Wanted to be a gentlemen" "Yes" "That's nice of you but we need to sell this cover I.D." "Your right, I wasn't thinking sorry" "No its fine it's kind of sweet actually" "Thanks El, I don't think I would have gotten that reaction two hundred years ago" She stepped out next to him and asked "Why?" "When I was growing up their was a big push for total equality between all races and genders which is fine but a lot of the girls and women around me at the time took it to far. What was me just trying to be polite and nice they took the wrong way and assumed I was doing it for other reasons which was always different, but it was hard trying to be nice to anybody after a wile which was hard in it self as my mom raised me old school" "Old school?" "Yes, like be polite say yes and no yes ma'am and no sir to respect others, and I took and old school approach to other things as well" "Oh I see, and they didn't like that then" "Yes it was hard trying to be a gentleman when dating back then" "I'm sorry" "Don't be it didn't last long enough to matter because I joined Olympus" "From what I read you didn't really join" Al stopped and looked down at the rail and actually could remember that day "What do you know exactly?" "I know that all Olympus members were take from pre selected groups and trained for years in secret" "One of the things I remember is that day my sixteenth birthday, it was going to be a good day I had family coming and the few friends I had but some people had other ideas" "Sorry" was all she said as she stepped closer and hugged him. He returned the hug and the two of them just stood there for a minuet until she shivered in his arms "We should go inside" He said letting go a little to look at her "Yes we should, how are you doing?" She asked looking back at him "I'm ok, why?" "It just seems like you have always had it rough with the problems when you were younger and then the Olympus stuff then all of the trouble you had trying to join the militia and now losing most of your memories, how are you doing?" "When I was younger I had family and the rest comes under the not remembering thing and I am surviving for now, you being here helps some how I cant explain" "Ok just let me know if you need anything ok" "I will, come on lets get some sleep" She nodded and they walked in and he grabbed his stuff and went and laid down in the bed trying once more for sleep, he felt a hand an his back calming him as he didn't know he was psyching himself up to sleep he rolled over to look at her and she had a smile on her face "I'm here when you need me" She said "I know El, I know"


	11. Chapter 11 Return

Chapter 11: Fake World

"Damn this stupid thing" He shouted slamming his fist into his desk causing Alistar to look up and ask "What is it this time Jack?" Jack looked over his computer screen at him and said "It's this new data processor, I cant get it to work with in the parameters that it needs to be useable" Alistar stood up and started to walking over saying "Let me see maybe a new pair of eyes will help" "Be my guest" Jack said leaning back in his chair. Alistar leaned one hand on Jack's desk as he looked at the screen and after a few seconds said "Maybe try reducing the distance between your main power unit and the sequence loop module, it seams that you are loosing to much power on the way to the module as it passes through the other components" "Maybe, but wont that end up pulling to much from the other units by the end?" "True, well try putting the loop in the middle and link the start and end sequences and take advantage of the loop module" "How do you mean?" "Use the sequence loop module as a repeater for both the data stream and the power flow" "Interesting, lets give it a try" Jack said as he started typing "Now lets see what it will do now" He said and hit the star simulation button "That's better but I'm not getting the power out put I should be" "That's because your amps to voltage ratio is way off" "Oh ya it is, lets fix that. Wow this thing actuly works" "There you go, what's this thing for anyway?" "I not one hundred percent sure I thing it has to do with one of doctor Tanoge's projects" "Hu, well let's let the good doctor know it's ready for testing shall we" Alistar said picking up an in building commlink.

The door click shut behind him and he hung up the light jacket he had been wearing on its hook in the hall and walked into the living room and faceplanted into the couch. Elizabeth walked out from a back room and leaned on the hall wall and said "Rough day it seams" Alistar turned his head just enough to be heard but was still muffled "Yes and no, the morning wasn't bad we finneshed our project but the afternoon I got stuck in an inter department shit show" She straitened up and walked over to the couch and leaned down placing her elbow on the arm rest "Was it as bad as military 'disagreements'" She said as he rolled over to look her in the eye "It was about the same, two people yelling at each other over who has the right to do this or that and even after that nothing gets done" She smiled knowing exactly what he was saying "So how was your day?" He asked. The question surprised her and she said "Not much happened so it was not bad but not good" "It was an ok kind of day then" He said "Ya an ok day, nothing special" "Well then lets do something special" He said standing up and walked over to the entertainment center they had and plugged his data pad in "What are you doing?" She asked sitting down on the couch "Storm sent me a data pack of a bunch of old movies that I watched growing up and I want to show you some" "Old movies, how old?" "They were old before I was born, and tecnicly I'm ancient" He said doing a silly little dance for the effect. She laughed a little at the move then asked "Ok so wich one first?" "Well it's an old movie called Singing in The Rain staring Gene Kelly a verry talented man" "Really?" "Yes he could dance and sing wile being a great actor, he even did some directing" "That's a lot, what did he direct?" "Another one of my favorites movies Hello Dolly we can watch it later if you like" "I would like that, and who stars in that one?" "Oh a lot of people like Barbra Streisand plays Dolly and another favorite of mine Michael Crawford who himself dose sevral other things I like" "Like what?" She asked excitement growing "Um he did Condorman a wonderful comedy and he originated the roll of the Phantom in The Phantom of The Opera" The two of them went on for hours talking about old Earth things and watching old movies going late into the night.

"How long have you been at this pet project?" Jack asked "Three weeks" Alistar answered head in his hands sounding on the verge of giving up "Well maybe you should not have called Tanoge an idiot for insisting that what he sent us was the only way to do that processor, and then toss a working version in his face built to your specks" Jack said looking around his computer at Alistar "Maybe, but I was right" "Yeah you were and you proved you are smarter than him so he dumps an impossible task in your lap either getting you to give up and he wins or you get it to work and he still gets what he wants" "You know him well" It wasn't a question "Yes I have seen it before, it didn't end well" "I see" Was all Al said as the thaught of what might happen if things went south ran through his head. His brooding was interrupted by the time clock calling for a shift change "That's it for today I guess" Jack said standing up and stretching "I'm going to take this home with me and see if I can crack the encryption on this stupid thing" Al said lifting the old looking data pad that he had been trying to crack for the past weeks "You never stop do you?" Jack asked pulling on his jacket "Not when I'm close" "You said that last week" "True well on one hand I'll either come in tomorrow done or still going" "You are something else you know that" "How do you mean?" "You never stop, it's like you have to do this to survive or something" It surprised Alistar how close Jack was to the truth "I just like finishing what I start" "Well you need to slow down some time or you will burn out" Jack said getting into his car "Na I'll be fine" Al said sarcastically as he started walking home "Whatever" Jack said pulling out.

"You don't even take the time to stop and eat, you do both" Elizabeth said taking Jack's side in the conversation watching Al continue to try cracking the data pad and eat at the same time "Listen El this data pad dates back to the end of project Olympus, normally I wouldn't care but-" "But this might have answers" She finneshed for him "Yes" He said looking at her "I get it, but why is it taking so long?" "Well I've taken down sevral layers of encryption already but the problem is they are all trapped with self deleting codes so I have to be carful wile undoing five thousand bit encryption keys" "That sounds like a lot" "Well let me put it this way, the data that came out with me only had a six hundred bit key and you couldn't crack it and I don't think the IMC could either with out the key" "Oh" "It's fine I'll work on this for only a little bit more then I'm going to bed so don't worry" "Ok but don't say that and then get lost in what you are doing and forget" She said as she walked out of the dinning room "You know me to well" He called after her. Al picked up his plate and walked out of the dinning room turning the light out as he did and entered the kitchen. He set his plate down on the island counter and turned on the small light over it as not to use to bright a light then went back to work. A few hours later the entry encryption broke and he looked at the home screen of the pad and something about it felt familiar following a hunch he opened the files and started reading, most of the data was useless a report on supplies making their scheduled time of arrival and troop transport ETA's and ATA's giving up he scrolled to the bottom and got up to get a glass of water before it finneshed. After he sat back down he saw that near the bottom was a file with no heading but it was much larger than the others, tapping the file it opened to revile a report confirming the activation of a new initiative with in project Olympus he could not fine the name at first but after a wile "Come on give me a name, this looks promising 'And so commander I can confirm the green light to begin the Apocalypse Initiative' AAAAaahhhh" Upon finishing the sentence there was a flash in his head and he grabed his forehead pulling back in pain and falling off of the stool he was sitting on and smacking his head on the floor knocking him out.

'What do you think Alistar?' Alistar turned to see Ben looking at him 'I think their scared, scared of what we can do so they put us together to keep an eye on us and make us feel specal as a way to keep us in line that's what I think' Ben's grin left his face and the looks on Sam's and Lily's faces were worse 'Why would you say that, it's not that bad here' Lily said half heartedly 'You three are second wave pilots, you don't know what command is capable of' 'Come on Al, those stories are just that stories' Sam said stepping forward 'Are you sure about that Sam?' 'Well I-' 'You never wondered why a quote new program was called Olympus 2, why such amazing genetic research worked the first time no problems and no testing, why twenty foot tall robots pilotable by humans have no long term affects on the pilots first time around? Or the micro bots in your body that make up the lost ground from just being human are that fine tuned' 'I never saw it that way' 'All I'm saying is don't trust freely around here you three' As he finneshed the intercomm called out 'Pilot Cambel report to med bay for a medical update' And saying nothing he walked out. 'You don't think he's serious do you?' Sam asked looking at Ben and Lily 'I don't know' Ben said watching Alistar walk away 'He is, well I don't know what he is' Lily said also watching him walk. After a few seconds of silence Ben said 'I do know with out a doubt that he is what he says he is' 'Oh and what is it your are talking about exactly?' Sam asked 'He is a first wave pilot I'm sure of that' Ben replied 'But how can you know for sure?' Lily asked a little fear creeping into her voice 'No second wave pilot has seen combat yet but he has this aura about him a sence of death and lots of combat. And he shares a link with his titan like no pilot in the second wave has, they share info and have conversations at speeds no other can match' 'So he has seen combat what's the big deal?' Sam asked 'The big deal as you say is he is the same age group as us and has those years of combat, I think those stories aren't just roomers but more of horror stories of what he can do that's why in this Apocalypse Initiative he got the name Death' That oh so familiar feeling of pain but this time it had some more to it his head hurt both inside and out "Al can you hear me?" El asked taking his pulse "Ya I'm good" He said sitting up "What happened?" "I cracked the pad and found something that released some memories" "Anything good?" "No" "Oh do you want to talk abut it?" "Not really, but I should or it might not stay" "Ok" "Well it seams that my past is darker than I thaught" And Alistar told Elizabeth about what he had seen and heard and what he understood about the Apocalypse Initiative wich led to "Why the Apocalypse Initiative? It's a bit intimidating" She asked "They called it that because each of the four members had a specal skill set that corresponded to one of the four horseman of the apocalypse, mine was death" "Well I can see that happening" "You can hu? Ah" As he spoke his body locked up for a second and his face was full of pain "Al?" "I'm ok for now El it's just that if this keeps happening it will cause lethal brain damage" "What can we do?" "The only thing I can think of is to step up our plans, I know from when doctor Tanoge gave me the pad that he has a sever in his lab that has all of his data on Olympus and from what I can tell the systom blocking my memories is running on that to" "When do you think we should do this?" "Tomorrow night with it being Saturday there will be less people in the bulding" "Ok I'll start preparing" "Ok tomorrow night we end this"

The wind blew lightly as Alistar hooked up the rappelling harness and tested if the line had anchored properly, pleased with it he looked over to Gates and she gave him a thumbs up. Alistar walked over to the edge and looked down checking the drop if it was all clear, they would have to rappel down from the top of the tenth floor to the South West corner of the ninth floor where Dr. Tanoge's office was. He turned around letting his heals hang of the edge and began to lean into the harness and over the edge, slowly one step at a time he lowered him self to the window he wanted. He would have to affect entry and unhook his harness so Gates could join him, grabbing a small tool from his belt he put it into postion and began twisting. The small hand drill would not set off the windows pressure alarm if he did it slowly enough but that was the trick drill a hole slowly enough to not be noticed and open the window so he could swing in and let Gates join him. Just as the drill tip began to peek the other side of the glass the glass began to make cracking sounds he stopped the sound continued for a second or two then stopped. Alistar wiped his face out of nervous habit and tried drilling again even more slowly causing a few more sounds but nothing that stopped him from finneshing the hole, when he was done he put the drill back and reached in the small hole and unlocked the window it swung open slightly and stopped he was glad it was night time as the window moving in the day would have reflected light onto some one below. Going to pull his hand out of the hole he found a new problem his hand was stuck and he couldn't get it out, he pulled and pulled he tried moving his thumb this way and that but nothing worked finally he reached in the window with his other hand and undid the Velcro on his glove and pulled it off. That worked and his hand was free now he swung himself into the window. Alistar stood there for a few seconds waiting to see if his entrance set off any alarms, nothing happened and Alistar unhooked the rappelling line and sent it up and soon Gates joined him "Where is the computer we are looking for?" She whispered and Alistar pointed to the unit saying "There" just as quietly. They walked up to the monitor and Alistar woke up the screen "Gates make sure nobody interrupts me" He said and she nodded walking over to the door Alistar looked down and started, There wasn't much security on the computer it self as the fiscal security of the bulding was up to standard. "People put to much faith in cameras" He said as he searched for the program blocking his memories, after a minuet or two he found it and began dismantling it. When he had the whole thing ready to go he looked at Gates and said "I may black out for a bit, if I start yelling try and keep me quiet" She nodded and watched as he hit enter on the keyboard. Immediately he dropped to his knees and grabbed his head gritting his teeth as wave after wave of old memories both good and horrors he didn't realize he had flooded back, he sat there on the floor for a few seconds panting trying to get a grip on all of the things now lose in his mind Gates stepped over "Are you ok?" "I'm fine" He said standing up and looking at the screen "Shit Tanoge rigged an alarm if the systom went down he would know" "How long do we have?" "Five seconds until the elevator opens with security in it" Just as he finneshed talking they heard a soft ding as the elevator opened. Alistar moved over to the door and Gates took cover behind a desk, Alistar could hear the guards approach the door seven by the sound of it they were going to kick the door down. Alistar reached over and grabbed the doorknob and waited for the sound of shifting gear and when he did he pulled the door open just as the guard was trying to kick it open and the man fell flat on his face. Wasting no time Alistar kicked the man in the face just as he was turning to look at him breaking his neck, stepping over the body he reached out and grabbed the carbine of the next guard and pushing back and up causing the butt of the gun to slide into his chin and make him take a stutter step into the guard behind him. Al let go of the gun and pulled his knife plunging it beep into the mans throat then pulling it out and pushing with his other hand sending the now lifeless body back into the next guard knocking him to the ground, jumping over the two on the floor and sending his knee into the chest of the next guard nocking the wind out of him making him drop to his knees Al shifted the knife in his hand and brought it down right at the base of the mans skull, reaching down and grabbing a sidearm Alistar took aim and fired twice dropping two more guards. Alistar turned around to see the one guard he had nocked down starting to get up he aimed and fired twice more killing him instantly but the pistol jammed. Dropping the pistol and turning to see the last guard leveling his carbine Alistar ran forward and as the guard began firing Al jumped up kicking from wall to wall until he kicked off for the third time and landed on the guard nocking him prone and then holding his upper chest and shoulders down with his left he reached around with his right behind the mans head and grabbed his mouth and jerked if suddenly and violently snapping his neck. "I take it your back to full?" Gates said from the doorway of the office "Mostly" He said standing up "I'd say you are seven guards in five seconds, you never did that before" She said stepping up to him "I must be getting slow" Was all he said and walk to the elevator. Gates watched him disable the elevator thinking 'He's grown cold and verry dangerous, maybe he was holding back earlier but why?' "Gates it's time to go" He said walking past her to the window stopping at the main desk and looked at it for a few seconds then said "I have their cameras now" "But how?" Gates asked stunned "My nural lace I linked up to the server" Before she could say anything more they heard foot steps running up the stairs "There is only one coming get hooked up I'll deal with him" Gates nodded and started hooking up her harness and Alistar walked over to the door leading to the stairs and waited on the knob side. As the door swung open Alistar turned into the guard and brought both his hands up into the mans neck and broke his windpipe causing him to fall back down the stairs either way the man was dead and Gates didn't know how to handle what was happening, sure she had seen combat and the like but the cold efficiency and shear speed he now moved at wasn't natural not by a long shot.


End file.
